She stood in her own home and said ‘it feels crazy, it is objectively crazy,’ then explained the $10,000 bill that ended her homeownership

A TikToker recently made the difficult decision to sell her home and return to renting, despite holding a low mortgage and a favorable interest rate. The story gained traction when reported by The Daily Dot. The TikToker, who goes by @heycolmax, summed up the move plainly: “It feels crazy. It is objectively crazy.”

She had initially felt secure in her position, describing her mortgage as relatively low for the area where she lived. However, the reality of maintaining a property quickly overtook that sense of stability, as a constant stream of unexpected costs began to pile up. Repair expenses, contractor fees, city-related issues, and routine household demands all contributed to a mounting financial burden she had not fully anticipated.

The breaking point came last year when she was hit with a single repair bill of $10,000, followed by additional expenses of several thousand dollars to replace a furnace and a water heater. These back-to-back costs made it clear she could no longer sustain homeownership on her terms. She encouraged followers not to feel locked in by a low interest rate, saying, “You don’t have to hold onto that house or piece of property just because you have a low interest rate.”

The hidden math of owning a home is pushing more people toward renting

The financial strain she described is reflected in broader data on homeownership costs. A study by Bankrate found that the average annual cost of owning and maintaining a single-family home in the United States exceeds $21,000, with home maintenance alone averaging more than $8,800 a year.

That figure is driven in part by inflation and the aging of the nation’s housing stock, with the median American home now over 40 years old, a condition that tends to produce more frequent and costly repairs. Amid the broader conversation about financial pressure on everyday Americans, a TikToker who went viral over financial burnout sparked a similar debate earlier this month about the sustainability of current living costs.

Property taxes increased by an average of 27 percent between 2019 and 2024, and homeowners insurance premiums grew by 24 percent over the same period, driven in part by the rising frequency of extreme weather events. Utility bills have also climbed significantly due to rising transmission and distribution fees. When stacked together, these costs form a financial picture that few homeowners fully anticipate at the time of purchase.

Reaction on X was divided. Some users sympathized with the TikToker’s situation, while others pointed out that renting does not escape those same underlying costs. “Sadly, you pay all those expenses as a renter also,” one user wrote, “the owner of a property transfers all those costs to the renter.” The @heycolmax video also prompted discussion about the so-called “locked-in” effect, where homeowners feel unable to sell because trading a low-rate mortgage for a higher one would cost even more.

Conversations about the gap between home equity on paper and actual disposable income have become a recurring theme online, including a Reddit thread about a $50,000 windfall squandered before it could go toward a mortgage. The @heycolmax video has not been taken down, and the TikToker has noted she has not ruled out becoming a homeowner again in the future.