What are the states with the highest average mortgage payments in the country?
Inflation and high house prices have made it considerably harder to get a mortgage and the average monthly repayments have risen accordingly.
New data released by government-backed mortgage firm Freddie Mac has revealed that interest rates for 30-year mortgages in the United States have risen to the highest level in ten years. The average rate for low risk, fixed-rate mortgages hit 5% last week, hitting home-owners in the pocket at a time when inflation is also high.
A statement from Freddie Mac read: “As Americans contend with historically high inflation, the combination of rising mortgage rates, elevated home prices, and tight inventory are making the pursuit of homeownership the most expensive in a generation.”
This will see tens of millions of Americans face higher monthly mortgage repayments than they may have expected, but the actual size of mortgage payments varies a lot across the country.
Which states have the most expensive mortgage payments?
Business Insider has collated data from online real estate marketplace Zillow to investigate the average monthly cost of a mortgage in the US
On a national scale, they have found that the average monthly payment on 30-year fixed mortgage is $1,159, while payments on a 15-year fixed mortgage are typically around $1,747.
However the average figure is not entirely representative because a small number of extremely valuable properties can have an outsized impact on the figure. For this reason, Business Insider have studied the median monthly cost of mortgage repayments, which is currently $1,609.
Properties in states like California, Hawaii, and New Jersey are more costly on average, and so they have some of the highest median monthly mortgage payments in the country:
1. District of Columbia - $2,684
2. Hawaii - $2472
3. California - $2,421
4. New Jersey - $2,413
5. Massachusetts - $2,276
The cheapest median monthly mortgage payments are found in West Virginia ($1,052) and Arkansas ($1,094).
Mortgage debt is on the rise across the US
As you would expect, with interest rates up and average mortgage repayments on the rise the amount of debt per home-owner is increasing rapidly. The average mortgage debt is now over $215,000 and it seems likely to continue rising.
In 2021 the total US mortgage debt reached $10.76 trillion.
States with the highest average mortgage debt were similar to those with the highest median monthly repayments. D.C. against placed top ($437,976), followed by California ($371,981) and Hawaii ($348,637).