Cost of living weighs on Americans: 21% jump in the pace of home foreclosures

The rise in the cost of living in the United States is eroding the budgets of homeowners associations (HOA) and is leading to an increase in requests for home foreclosures, reports The Wall Street Journal. Homeowners associations, common throughout the United States, are responsible for maintaining common areas in neighborhoods and residential buildings and serve as a homeowners’ committee. For services and ongoing expenses, the associations charge a monthly fee. Since this is a shared fund, when one homeowner stops paying, the other residents bear the burden.

However, higher costs for personnel, insurance policies, materials, and products have depleted the coffers of these associations over the past year. As a result, they have intensified measures against residents who are late with payments, and in some cases, refused to defer debts. In the most extreme cases, the associations have chosen to file a foreclosure request, a step within their legal authority, though conditions vary by state.

According to data collected by the research company ATTOM, in the first quarter of 2026 these associations filed 6,376 home foreclosure requests, a jump of nearly 40% compared with the corresponding period in 2024. For 2025, the associations filed more than 285,000 foreclosure requests, an increase of 8.8% compared with the previous year.

“Associations are forced to take more aggressive collection actions to avoid financial collapse,” explained Brian Fox, founder of the real-estate technology company Knottack, which monitors HOA foreclosure trends.

The trend matches the sharp increase in the pace of home foreclosures felt in the American housing market overall, against the backdrop of persistent inflation of 3.5%, mainly due to higher costs for energy, housing, and food. According to data published by ATTOM last month, the number of foreclosure requests across the United States rose in the first half of the year to about 228,000, an increase of 21% compared with the same period last year and a jump of 28% compared with the same period in 2024.

“This increase indicates that more homeowners are in economic distress,” noted Rob Barber, CEO of ATTOM. The largest jump in the pace of foreclosures was recorded in Idaho, with an increase of 59% compared with the corresponding period in 2025. Additional sharp increases were also recorded in Colorado (57%) and Georgia (52%).

At the same time, in terms of the number of foreclosures, Florida is at the top of the table, with a broad volume including in Tampa, Orlando, and Jacksonville, while South Carolina is in second place. According to Realtor.com, an increase was also recorded in cases where a home is sold at a price lower than the amount remaining for its owner to repay the mortgage. Although this is a move considered less drastic than foreclosure, it points to financial distress that owners have fallen into. According to the website, sales of this type rose by 16% in the first quarter of this year.