HOA fees have spiked over 50% in the last 4 years. Insurance and utilities are to blame.

Homeowners association dues have risen at roughly twice the rate of broader inflation as communities contend with the ballooning costs of insuring and maintaining their properties.

Vantaca, an HOA management software company, found in a new report that assessments rose nearly 51% between 2021 and 2025. HOAs' insurance costs were a major contributor to the higher fees, jumping 75%, while utilities rose 63%. Maintenance, which is typically the largest expense for HOAs, jumped by a comparatively modest 26%.

The new data underscores the extent to which this major "hidden cost of homeownership" has risen, pressuring the budgets of the nearly 80 million Americans who live in HOA or condo association communities.

"Insurance is such a meaningful contributor in most geographies," Vantaca CEO Ben Currin said in an interview. "We've seen over the past five years increasing natural disasters, wildfires, and hurricanes in the Southeast. The ripple through into renewals and carriers exiting markets [has been] such a big contributor to rising costs, especially in condos."

Association fees — and what they cover — vary widely by community. Neighborhoods of single-family homes tend to have lower dues that fund shared neighborhood amenities like parks and pools. Condominium buildings, in contrast, usually have much higher fees because they have far more shared spaces and systems to insure and maintain.

While costs are up across all types of associations, condo owners have felt more pain: Their assessments rose 96% between 2021 and 2025, compared with a 49% jump for single-family home communities.

Special assessment bills — one-time fees separate from regular dues that often cover major maintenance projects or unexpected shortfalls — are also substantially larger for condo owners, averaging $1,450 per condo in 2025, compared with $514 for the typical single-family home.

As housing affordability continues to deteriorate, many prospective and current homeowners are taking a closer look at their HOA fees and special assessments. The high fees that come with older condos in particular have contributed to higher inventory and sinking demand for those units in many cities, experts have told Yahoo Finance.

Vantaca found that nearly 40% of homeowners think their dues are too high, but 73% would accept an increase in their fees if the rationale was clearly explained to them.

Many, though, say they feel like they're in the dark about their community's financial situation — fewer than 1 in 5 homeowners say they get all the information they need about an association's finances and operations.

"This is a major expense for these folks, and they feel like it's a little bit of a black box when they don't have access to all the right information," Currin said.

Claire Boston is a senior reporter for Yahoo Finance covering housing, mortgages, and home insurance.