Millions of U.S. homeowners are digging out driveways, walkways and sidewalks this week following one of the largest winter storms to pummel the nation in years. The storm dropped 12 inches of snow or more in 17 states from New Mexico to New Hampshire over the weekend.
But when it comes to snow removal, some homeowners have a heavier lift than others.
About 44% of all for-sale listings in 2025 were for properties belonging to a homeowners association (HOA), according to a recent analysis from listings platform Realtor.com. That share has risen over the past 15 years, from around one-fifth of homes in 2010 to about one-third of homes by 2019.
Owning a home in a community association includes a surcharge, or HOA fee, which covers a range of community services. Clearing sidewalks and common spaces of snow and ice in the winter — or landscaping maintenance, more generally — is one common service included.
Fees charged and community services provided can vary widely across HOAs, but common coverage areas also include security, utilities such as garbage collection and street lighting, and facilities upkeep in communities with shared amenities like swimming pools, clubhouses and gyms. HOAs also usually retain a portion of collected dues as reserve funds to cover major repairs and unexpected costs.
The growing prevalence of HOAs has redistributed some traditional costs of homeownership — and even the costs of an active lifestyle — from homeowners to community associations, particularly among owners of townhouses and condominiums, 84% of which belong to HOAs, says Realtor.com.
This trend has emerged as a direct result of shifting home building trends over the past decade, and as a result HOA prevalence is disproportionately concentrated across southern and western U.S. states where most new-home construction has occurred in recent years.
Nevada, for example, led the U.S. in 2025 with the highest share (68.3%) of home listings belonging to an HOA, followed by Arizona (65.1%), Florida (64.6%), Delaware (63.8%), Utah (58.2%), North Carolina (55%), Texas (54.2%), Idaho (53.6%) and Colorado (51.6%).
Midwestern and northeastern states typically have a share of home listings with HOA obligations at roughly one-third or less, with Massachusetts an outlier at around 38%.
Since 2017, more than 60% of newly built homes have belonged to community associations, peaking at 67% of new homes built in 2020. Meanwhile, townhouse construction has risen from about 10% of all newly built single-family homes in 2015 to about 18% in 2025, according to the National Association of Home Builders.
The share of single-family homes in HOAs has risen in recent years, too, from 25% in 2019 to 33% in 2025. As of 2025, the share of existing-home listings belonging to HOAs was about 39%, while the share for new-home listings was around 68%.
While townhouses and condos are more likely to have HOAs than single-family homes, and newly built homes are more likely to have HOAs than existing homes, the share of listings with HOAs has risen across the board in recent years.
However, as the share of homes with HOA fees has climbed in recent years, so has the median monthly HOA amount, from $108 in 2019 to $125 in 2024 and $135 in 2025, according to Realtor.com. In an affordability-constrained homebuying market, a 25% rise in average HOA fees adds pressure to monthly payment calculations to qualify mortgage borrowers.
A monthly mortgage payment typically includes four categories collectively known as PITI: principal, interest, property taxes and homeowners insurance. Low-downpayment borrowers with government-backed mortgages are also required to pay monthly mortgage insurance.
Monthly mortgage payments have roughly doubled since 2020, fueled by runaway home price gains, elevated mortgage rates, rising homeowners insurance premiums and property tax bills that have swelled alongside ballooning home values.
Listings platform Zillow recently calculated the national mortgage payment-to-income ratio at around 32.6% to start 2026, the lowest since August 2022. Assuming a 20% downpayment, Zillow says the typical monthly mortgage payment was $2,337 in December, inclusive of PITI, down $177 from the end of 2023.
The concentration of HOA-based home listings across the Mountain West and Sun Belt regions means homebuyers in those markets disproportionately feel the life of added HOA costs in their monthly mortgage payments — or in their inability to qualify for a mortgage as a result.
Nowhere is that truer than in Florida, which boasts the costliest HOA fees relative to home prices and the second-highest share of listings with HOA obligations in the U.S. The Sunshine State, however, has faced an onslaught of upward pressure on HOA fees due to surging insurance costs and the 2021 Surfside Towers collapse, which renewed oversight on condo safety.
On Realtor.com’s list of 300 major U.S. metro markets ranked by highest HOA fee as a share of monthly mortgage payments, seven of the top 10 were in Florida, ranging from around 13% in the Sebastian-Vero Beach metro area to around 27% across the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area.
