NEW YORK, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- Soaring costs for home insurance and property taxes are busting homeowners' budgets, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has reported.
Insurers have pushed big rate increases because of losses from natural disasters and rising costs to repair homes, and surging home values in recent years, meanwhile, have lifted property taxes for many U.S. homeowners, according to the report.
"These ballooning expenses are rewriting the math of homeownership," noted the report. In September, 32 percent of the average single-family mortgage payment went to property taxes and home insurance, the highest rate ever for data going back to 2014, according to Intercontinental Exchange (ICE).
For a small but increasing share of households, the burden is far more significant. In five major metro areas -- Rochester and Syracuse, New York; Omaha, Nebraska; New Orleans and Miami -- at least a quarter of borrowers spend more than half their monthly mortgage payment on taxes and insurance, according to ICE.
Nationwide, taxes and insurance make up more than half of the monthly mortgage payment for 9 percent of single-family mortgages. That is up from less than 4 percent at the end of 2014.
