It was found that housing maintenance costs have risen sharply since the pandemic due to the rapid increase in prices over the past few years. In Virginia and Maryland, the cost of maintaining a single-family home, excluding mortgage payments, has increased by 23% in four years compared to before the pandemic.
Bankrate calculated the cost of maintaining a home in each state based on property taxes, home insurance premiums, energy costs, internet and cable costs, and repair costs (2% of the house price), excluding mortgage repayment amounts. According to this, Virginia’s home maintenance cost in 2024 was $17,647, a 23% increase from $14,406 in 2020, ranking 19th in the country, and Maryland’s was $19,712, $3,694 more than $16,019 four years ago. (23%) and ranked 11th in the country. The state with the most expensive home maintenance costs was Hawaii, where the median home price was $993,000, followed by California ($28,790), Massachusetts ($26,313), and New Jersey ($29,015). followed by Connecticut ($25,573) and Connecticut ($23,515).
On the other hand, the state with the lowest home maintenance costs was Kentucky at $10,1559, followed by Arkansas ($11,692), Mississippi ($11,881), Alabama ($12,258), and Indiana ($12,259). What followed was that. Nationwide, the largest proportion of home maintenance costs were repair costs due to the rapid increase in home sales prices. Property taxes were the second highest. In this survey, the median home price across the U.S. in March reached $436,291, and the average home maintenance cost was $1,510 per month or $18,118 per year. This is a 26% increase compared to four years ago. Bankrate analyzed that high inflation across the economy following the pandemic had an impact on the rise in housing maintenance costs. Bankrate analyst Jeff Ostrowski said, “Before owning a home, you probably didn’t have much interest in maintenance costs,” and added, “It’s not a good idea to save up enough money for home maintenance in a savings account with a high interest rate in advance. “It is more desirable,” he advised.