It may come as no surprise, but a new survey from Hometap, released on Tuesday, confirms that more than half of U.S. homeowners are feeling financially strained as homeownership costs continue to rise faster than incomes, pushing long-term goals further out of reach.

Still, many remain determined to hang onto their homes as they view them as a cornerstone of long-term value.

Hometap’s survey, conducted in June 2025 by AYTM (Ask Your Target Market), consisted of 1,000 homeowners ages 18 and up.

The financial realities of homeownership have shifted in recent years as property taxes, insurance premiums and maintenance costs have increased alongside home values, further straining homebuyer budgets. As a result, many are finding it harder to keep up even as their homes grow in value.

“Homeownership is meant to provide stability, but for many, that is no longer the reality,” Jeffrey Glass, CEO of Hometap, said in a statement. “Our survey confirms what we hear from homeowners every day: rising costs are making it harder to manage day-to-day expenses, plan for the future, and navigate life’s financial ups and downs.

“While we believe in the long-term value of homeownership, we also believe that homeowners should be able to own a home and still invest in other life priorities.”

Financial stress is now a defining aspect of homeownership, Hometap concluded, with more than half of homeowners (54.5%) reporting feeling moderately to extremely financially stressed. Meanwhile, 45% say that rising homeownership costs are their top financial concern for the year ahead.

Those feeling moderately to extremely financially stressed are still determined to stay in their homes, with 29.9% even considering getting a second job or side hustle if housing costs continue to rise.

Generational divides are shaping the experience of stress. For example, millennials (ages 25 to 44), were more than four times as likely as baby boomers (61 to 79) to cite mortgage payments as their top source of stress (14.6% vs. 3.2%).

Baby boomers, meanwhile, reported more stress from insurance and maintenance expenses, which are often tied to the combination of aging homes and fixed incomes.

As costs rise for all generations, a large share of homeowners (79.5%) say that housing costs are increasing faster than their incomes, while 62.3% report spending a higher share of income on housing than ever before.

As a result, this has delayed other financial priorities, as 44.4% say they’re unable to make progress on key goals. And more than one-third say that they have reduced their retirement contributions or postponed paying off debt.

More than half (52.5%) have delayed home improvements, 49.5% have cut back on groceries and 56.3% have reduced spending on vacations. A similar share (55.6%) have also scaled back on hobbies and personal spending, a notably higher rate than the overall homeowner population.

Despite the roadblocks, the belief in homeownership endures: Three in four homeowners (75.6%) say that owning a home is still part of the American dream, but that sentiment varies by generation.

While 62% of baby boomers say that homeownership still feels like a major accomplishment, only 50% of millennials agree, and 16% say it now feels more like a financial burden.

“Owning a home today involves more tradeoffs than people realize,” said an Arizona homeowner who took out a home equity investment through Hometap. “While it’s not the version of homeownership that once defined the American Dream, my home is one of the only financial tools I have that feels like it can still work in my favor.”

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