Housing Costs Keep Climbing for Veteran Homeowners Even as Price Growth Stalls

Home price growth across the United States has slowed sharply, yet the monthly cost of owning a home keeps rising. That gap between sluggish prices and climbing bills is becoming one of the defining household finance stories of 2026, and veterans are among the most exposed.

The reason is how many of them own. Military Times, reporting on a 2023 RAND analysis of Census data, found that about 80 percent of veterans own a home, compared with about 60 percent of non-veterans. Much of that gap traces to the VA home loan benefit, which allows eligible borrowers to buy with no down payment and no private mortgage insurance. Specialist lenders have built their businesses around that benefit; VA mortgage lender NewDay USA, for instance, says more than 100,000 veterans trust its team.

The benefit and the loans built on it cover the mortgage itself. The costs now climbing sit around it: insurance premiums, property taxes and the escrow payments that carry them.

Prices Flatten While the Monthly Bill Grows

Annual home price growth bottomed out at just 0.7 percent in February 2026, according to Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, down from 4.0 percent a year earlier and far below the 20.7 percent peak reached in 2022. By August it had recovered only to 2.1 percent on the S&P Cotality Case-Shiller national index, below the 3.4 percent inflation rate, which means home values have now fallen in real terms for 15 consecutive months. On paper, that looks like relief. In practice, the price of a house is only one part of what it costs to live in one.

The Joint Center’s research shows that the costs surrounding a mortgage have risen sharply. Average homeowners insurance premiums climbed 72 percent between 2019 and 2025, reaching about $201 a month, while property taxes rose 31 percent nationally over the same period. Mortgage rates eased to 6.23 percent in the final quarter of 2025, then reversed course in 2026. Freddie Mac’s 30-year fixed average climbed back above 7 percent in late September for the first time since January 2025 and stood at 7.32 percent for the week of October 22, up from 6.19 percent a year earlier. Even at the lower rates of late 2025, the Joint Center estimated the total monthly cost of buying a median-priced home, including insurance, taxes and mortgage insurance, at roughly $3,120.

Veterans Carry an Outsized Share of the Exposure

Because so many veterans already own their homes, these pressures land on them with unusual force. For many veteran households today, the pressing question is how to manage a payment that keeps creeping upward.

The other end of the housing ladder tells a more mixed story. HUD’s latest national count found 32,495 veterans experiencing homelessness on a single night in January 2025, about 5 percent of all homeless adults. That number is down 56 percent since 2009, but it fell by only about 1 percent from 2024, the smallest decline of any group HUD tracks.

Fixed Payments Are No Longer Fixed

Many veterans who bought or refinanced when rates were low assumed their housing costs were locked in. The principal and interest portion of a fixed-rate loan does stay the same, but escrow does not. When an insurer raises premiums or a county reassesses property values, the lender adjusts the escrow account and the monthly payment rises with it.

For retirees living on pensions, disability compensation or Social Security, an escrow increase of a hundred dollars or more a month can be difficult to absorb. Annual cost-of-living adjustments to benefits help, but they are designed to track broad inflation rather than insurance premiums in storm-exposed states or tax bills in fast-growing counties.

The burden is spreading beyond veterans as well. Nationally, the Joint Center counted 20.7 million homeowner households that were cost burdened in 2024, meaning they spent more than 30 percent of income on housing. That figure has risen by 4 million since 2019, and 9.6 million of those households spent more than half of their income on housing.

Where the Pressure Is Sharpest

Insurance has become the most volatile line item. Owners in coastal and wildfire-prone regions have faced the largest premium increases, and some have seen carriers leave their markets altogether. Military retirees have historically settled in states such as Florida, Texas and the Carolinas, close to bases and veterans’ services, which places a meaningful share of them in exactly the markets where insurance costs have risen fastest.

Property taxes tell a similar story in growing metro areas. Rapid appreciation earlier in the decade pushed up assessed values, and even where prices have since flattened, assessments often lag the market by a year or more. Many states offer property tax exemptions for veterans with service-connected disabilities, but eligibility and benefit size vary widely, and some eligible veterans never apply.

Buying In Is Getting Harder Too

For veterans who do not yet own a home, the picture is different but no easier. Citing the National Association of Realtors, the Joint Center reports that the median age of first-time buyers has risen to 40, an all-time high, while first-time buyers made up just 21 percent of purchases. The median monthly principal and interest payment on a median-priced home reached about $2,420 at the end of 2025, roughly double the level at the end of 2020, and that was before rates climbed back above 7 percent this fall.

The VA benefit still removes the down payment hurdle, which is often the largest barrier for younger buyers. It does not, however, lower insurance premiums or property taxes, and lenders still have to confirm that a borrower’s income covers the full monthly cost.

What Veteran Households Are Doing About It

Housing counselors and veterans’ advocates point to a handful of practical steps that can soften the impact:

• Reviewing the annual escrow statement closely and questioning any increase that looks out of line.
• Shopping homeowners insurance at renewal rather than accepting an automatic increase.
• Applying for state or county veterans’ property tax exemptions, especially after a disability rating changes.
• Appealing property assessments when they exceed recent comparable sales.
• Talking with a HUD-approved housing counselor before falling behind on payments.

Some homeowners with significant equity are also weighing refinancing to restructure debt or fund repairs, though higher rates mean that decision needs careful arithmetic.

The Outlook for 2026 and Beyond

Few forecasters expect insurance premiums or property taxes to fall meaningfully in the near term, and mortgage rates remain well above the levels many current owners locked in. That leaves veteran homeowners in an unusual position: wealthier on paper than a decade ago thanks to years of appreciation, yet facing monthly housing bills that keep rising regardless of what happens to home prices.

For a group that has relied on homeownership as a cornerstone of financial security after service, the coming years will test whether that security can hold up against costs that sit outside the mortgage itself. Keeping a close eye on the escrow line may be the most important habit veteran households can build.