Cotality Insights

Across the U.S., summertime is becoming synonymous with heat waves — and wildfires. The wildfire tally is growing as these blazes break records and, increasingly, homeowners’ finances. Reconstruction costs are becoming so burdensome, to both homeowners and insurers, that some people aren’t able to afford to come back to their homes at all.

Overview: National home price growth remains modest but accelerating, edging up 0.3% month-over-month and 1.2% year-over-year in June 2026. The Midwest and Northeast are now carrying much of the upside: Illinois (+6.4% YoY), Connecticut (+6.0%), Nebraska (+5.8%), and Indiana (+5.8%) led the state rankings.

Homeownership has a running tab. Property taxes, insurance, maintenance and community charges can turn a carefully calculated mortgage into an unaffordable month. New Cotality analysis reveals one sign of that pressure. Across the U.S., the number of homeowners association liens rose from 177,260 in 2022 to 250,951 in 2025, an increase of 41.7%. HOA-led foreclosure filings increased by 46.1% over the same period. What is a homeowners association?

Overview Mega-investors aren't buying all starter homes; small-to-medium investors make up most of the investor market share. To reduce construction costs, developers are building more townhomes and duplexes rather than detached single-family homes. Building in markets like Texas and Arizona has led to localized oversupply, causing rental demand and rates to soften in those areas.

Transcript: Allie Barefoot: Welcome back to Data in Context. I'm Allie Barefoot with Cotality. This episode is part of a mini series where we breakdown Cotality's monthly Home Price Index Report. The U.S. housing market is officially building momentum, but it's doing so in a way that's completely splitting the landscape of buyers into two distinct camps.

Transcript: Allie Barefoot: Welcome back to Data in Context. I'm Allie Barefoot with Cotality. When we talk about natural hazards, we often get caught up in the macro-level numbers—trillion-dollar exposures, massive loss modeling, and shifting environmental risk baselines. But at Cotality, we believe housing data is powered by numbers, but it's lived by real people.

Russell McIntyre: So yeah, I think I agree with Chay. I am optimistic about a lot of the provisions in this bill to take great strides in reducing that supply gap, but it's not going to completely close it. And that's for a lot of reasons. But again, I am optimistic that a lot of portions of this bill will do great things to lower the cost of housing, to provide new housing opportunities for people who might not have otherwise had them, but there's still definitely work to do.

Homeownership may no longer be the fluid wealth-building tool it once was. U.S. home values have skyrocketed 147% over the last 15 years, and equity has climbed alongside that. While this equity surge represents a historic windfall on paper, a decades-old tax limit1 is keeping some families frozen. Increasing capital gains taxes could discourage mobility, delay downsizing, or complicate retirement timing.

National home price growth May 2026 data Source: Cotality ‍ Affordability meter Source: Cotality ‍ Insights from Chief Economist Dr. Selma Hepp The U.S. housing market appears to be building momentum, albeit very slowly. Following a steady two-year slowdown, home price appreciation accelerated in May, ticking up to an annual pace of 0.8% from April’s 0.6%.

Americans on the hunt for affordable housing are finding it in a new and unexpected place: Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs). ADUs are popping up in backyards in some of the most expensive neighborhoods in the country, and their popularity is growing quickly. Data source: Cotality, 2026 ‍ New analysis of Cotality building permit data shows that between 2015 and 2025 the number of permits granted to build ADUs rose 1,100%. A decade ago, the number of new ADUs was a rounding error.