Homeowners insurance costs just hit a new high. It’s scaring off some buyers.

As homeowners insurance premiums hit record highs, homebuyers are growing increasingly concerned about their ability to afford them.

The average single-family homeowner is now paying almost $2,370 a year for property insurance, according to new data from ICE Mortgage Technology, up 70% in the last 5.5 years.

Insurance premiums are one of the fastest-growing costs of homeownership, outpacing jumps in home prices, mortgage rates, and property taxes. Most homebuyers expect the problem to get worse. A Realtor.com survey of recent and prospective homebuyers found that 75% are worried they may be unable to afford insurance in the future, and nearly 90% are bracing for higher prices.

Around the country — but especially in populous, disaster-prone states like Florida, Texas, and California — mortgage lenders, Realtors, and insurance brokers say insurance cost discussions are playing a bigger role in how buyers and sellers think about their next moves. Insurance is sometimes called one of the “hidden costs” of ownership, alongside property taxes, maintenance expenses, and homeowners’ association dues, and the rising costs are another strain on buyers struggling to deal with elevated mortgage rates and home prices near all-time highs.

“There’s definitely that sticker shock,” said John Powell, who owns an insurance agency in Plano, Texas.

Around the country, premium increases have far outstripped broader inflation in recent years, and they’re continuing to do so. They’re up 4.9% in the first half of the year alone, and 11.3% from a year ago. Costs are rising the fastest in cities in California as the state’s market adjusts to new regulations and the aftermath of January’s devastating wildfires, as well as parts of North and South Carolina that experienced severe flooding last year.

The rising costs come as climate change has increased the frequency and intensity of natural disasters, costing insurers billions in claims tied to hurricanes, hail, and wildfires and causing them to pull out of markets where they’re hemorrhaging money. Repairs are also getting more expensive as the cost of building materials and labor rises.

All of that contributes to higher premiums for consumers.

Read more: Homeowners insurance: What it covers and how much you’ll pay

There have always been parts of the country where insurance is especially expensive. For example, homeowners in Louisiana, Florida, and parts of Texas have long paid higher rates due to hurricane risk. The average homeowner in Miami pays $502 a month for property insurance, the highest anywhere in the country, and up from $306 at the end of 2019, according to ICE Mortgage Technology. And in New Orleans, premiums average $472 a month.

But now, higher repair costs and an uptick in roof-pummelling hailstorms have sent insurance premiums spiking even in parts of the country far from the coasts. Homeowners in Minneapolis and Des Moines, Iowa, saw their premiums rise 8% on average in the first half of this year, to $272 a month and $194 a month, respectively.

Keeping up with higher insurance costs can be a strain on homebuyers, especially first-time and lower-income buyers who might be close to the maximum permissible debt-to-income ratios on their loans, said Moses Garcia, a loan officer at Veterans Lending Group in San Antonio, Texas.

Five years ago, when doing pre-approvals, Garcia factored in $85 a month in insurance costs for a borrower looking for a $270,000 home in his area. Now, he estimates $120 or $130.

“When we’re up against debt-to-income guidelines, an increase of $40 or $50 here can blow the loan out of the water and not allow them to qualify anymore,” he said.

Before she moved to Okeechobee, Fla., Laura Richards, 49, didn’t think much about insurance. Annual premiums on her previous home in Nashville were manageable and predictable, rising around $100 over the course of a decade.

She knew she’d pay more in Florida due to hurricane risk, but she didn’t expect finding and keeping insurance to be so difficult. She purchased her home from her brother and called his broker, expecting to be able to get the same policy he had. But that insurer would no longer cover the house. She found an alternative, only to be dropped by them two years later.

Her new insurer recently told her she’ll need to switch again next year. Though she’s never filed a claim, she’ll pay $2,800 a year, up from $1,400 when she moved in 2022.

To keep up with the rising costs, she’s trimmed her budget, shopping for groceries at Aldi instead of Publix, a cult-favorite among Floridians. When she needs extra cash, she sometimes moonlights as a DoorDash driver.

Despite the turmoil, Richards, who works in corporate communications, considers herself lucky. But she’s concerned about how her elderly neighbors who live on fixed incomes and first-time homebuyers are able to afford the ballooning expenses.

“I’ll figure it out — I’m still youngish,” Richards said. “I worry about the people who are really young. Are they ever going to be able to not live with their parents? Florida is supposed to be this retirement Mecca. How are the senior citizens doing it?”