Escalating home-insurance premiums and property-tax bills are starting to erode the financial footing of U.S. homeowners, according to a study released on 10 July by data-analytics firm Cotality. Using servicing information on roughly 40 million mortgages, the company found that serious delinquencies—loans 90 days or more past due, including those already in foreclosure—resumed rising in 2024 after a three-year decline. The national property-tax delinquency rate in the first quarter of 2025 reached its highest level since 2018. Costs collected through escrow accounts are climbing far faster than incomes. Cotality calculates that the average monthly escrow payment, which covers taxes and insurance, has surged 62 % in the past five years. Florida illustrates the squeeze: property-tax bills there have jumped nearly 50 % over the period, while premiums keep rising amid hurricane losses. South Carolina has seen 14 insurers fail or withdraw since 2020, pushing homeowners’ rates higher, and Georgia faces similar pressure from tax increases averaging more than $700 per household. Those three southern states posted the steepest year-over-year increases in serious mortgage delinquencies. Nebraska, Texas, North Carolina, Louisiana, Colorado, Indiana and Oklahoma round out the top 10. The same affordability stress is reverberating through housing markets elsewhere. Florida’s median condo price fell 6.1 % in May to $310,000 as higher HOA fees and insurance costs deter buyers, while New York City’s foreclosure filings rose 11 % in the second quarter, hitting even high-end Manhattan ZIP codes. Economists at Cotality warn that unless tax and insurance inflation moderates, more households could fall behind on payments despite a labor market that remains broadly solid. Rising delinquency, they add, may feed back into local governments and lenders, complicating the housing-market recovery that many industry forecasts had expected for 2025.