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Thread: Housing cost -all in

  1. #1
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    Housing cost -all in

    We've had so many threads about housing and so many differing opinions. Let's talk about costs here.

    I stated our city home and mountain cabin are $1200/month all-in. What is included in that? We have been mortgage free since 2010.

    Insurance
    Property Tax
    Electricity
    Gas
    Snow Removal
    Cell Phone
    Internet
    Dish (hubby must)
    Water
    Sewer
    Trash
    Pellets (cabin heat)

    And I have a miscellaneous column for our homes where household items are included: towels, spatula, an appliance replacement etc. I consider these the cost of our home maintenance even though we would have them anywhere we lived. This is part of the $1200 average.

    Electricity at the cabin is a bit costly in winter. We have to run our baseboards at 50 degrees when we're away so the pipes don't freeze. No choice when it can be -29F. Water lines are 40 inches deep there but they froze one winter. We fortunately did not have broken pipes likely due to running our heat at 50.

    I do not include big maintenance costs in the average: furnace/AC, major kitchen appliances, We're renovating our mudroom at the cabin this year-the last room to touch so a 15 year process, all cash as we go which has been slow but awesome. So no more gross rooms left.

    Our city home is stated at 1634 feet according to current records (1850 stated when we bought it?) and our cabin is 1250 feet plus a loft space large enough for a double mattress set on the floor and that's all but it's a 3rd sleeping space for guests with kids.

    Housing prices have gone up 35% in the last year. It's not good to be the fastest growing city in the USA with housing availability at an all-time low. Well, not for us. Our prop tax bill is something I don't look forward to in November. Our cabin is holding steady so that's good.

    We have a good size fund set aside for majors: If we live another 30+ years we'll need: 1 new roof (cabin is metal and new 5y ago so it's good for the long haul), 2-3 furnace/AC units, 1 pellet stove, major kitchen appliances 1-2 times, washer/dryer 2-3 times....based on the current life projection of these things.........we don't use appliances near as much as a large family so I expect twice the life.

    How about you?

  2. #2
    Senior Member Teacher Terry's Avatar
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    570 for a 1400 house. Even though we are one of the fastest growing cities too with little inventory and skyrocketing prices property tax only allowed small increases. Plus they take the age of your home into account. So our 1950 house is much less than a new home the same size. A one bedroom apartment here rents for between 1000-1300/month.

  3. #3
    Yppej
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    Maybe $650 from your list excluding capital repairs. But I do not consider some of these things like a cell phone housing costs.

    I have been here 21 years and am on my original fridge, washer and dryer. My son replaced the dryer belt once. The stove worked but I replaced it because I wanted a flat top that would be easier to clean. The furnace predates me but I did replace the oil tank. Parts of the roof I have replaced twice, part never because although it is unsightly with roof algae it is structurally sound.

  4. #4
    Senior Member SteveinMN's Avatar
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    Not mortgage-free here. $1236/mo for us including everything above except pellets (all natural gas here), snow removal (that would be me), and Dish (though I threw in the $15/mo we spend on Hulu and CBS streaming). About $500 of that is principal and interest. 1800-square-foot rambler/ranch.. There is a "household maintenance" line item in our budget for things like furnace inspections, small tools for DIY repairs jobs, planting the flower garden, and tree work (that's been a budget killer this year); that comes to about $50-60 a month.

    We separate budget items for big maintenance. All the kitchen appliances have been replaced; still on the washer and dryer I bought when I moved in and they're probably working a little overtime now. I just replaced the water heater; that should be good as long as we're here. The furnace and A/C probably have about five years max before they should be replaced (they're not terribly efficient, either, so it wouldn't hurt to get them out a little early unless we know we're right out the door after that). The roof was new 15 years ago; it should last as long as we're here.

    Home values in the last few years finally are above where they were when I purchased the house in 2003. Our home probably is worth 20% more than it was when I bought it 15 years ago. Took a long time for recovery after the crash and there are neighborhoods not far from here that still have not recovered to pre-crash levels.
    Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Yppej View Post
    Maybe $650 from your list excluding capital repairs. But I do not consider some of these things like a cell phone housing costs.

    I have been here 21 years and am on my original fridge, washer and dryer. My son replaced the dryer belt once. The stove worked but I replaced it because I wanted a flat top that would be easier to clean. The furnace predates me but I did replace the oil tank. Parts of the roof I have replaced twice, part never because although it is unsightly with roof algae it is structurally sound.
    I include our cell phones because we've been tracking expenses since land lines so cell phones keep the tracking the same. I track expenses by category year over year so I have accurate figures for COLA over time.

  6. #6
    Senior Member jp1's Avatar
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    Not counting tv/internet we’re at $4,100. Hence the reason we will be retiring elsewhere. It makes sense as long as we keep working our current careers though. My counterpart in lower cost Cleveland, who has more years experience and a higher authority level than I do makes $30k/year less than me. SO is similarly stuck. He does HR for a large hotel company and in that job category one’s pay is determined in part by the number of hotel rooms. His portfolio of 9 hotels totals over 6,000 gyest rooms. There arent many cities in the US where he could be tasked with that much reaponsibility. And most of those cities are just as pricy places to live anyway.

  7. #7
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    I think ours is around $700 a month without cell phone, repairs, and improvements. Urban location, paid off house, low utilities, and taxes. We have lived here around 17 years. Makes it very hard to move since nothing will ever be as inexpensive.

  8. #8
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    Prob around $800 per month. No mortgage and cell phones not included. We have 3 unlimited lines, no data plan for total cost of $94 per month.
    Repairs have been more costly this year because of having to replace a septic pump.

  9. #9
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    $1350 a month, 1 bedroom apartment, gas, electricity, landline and cell, cheapo dsl, no cable or anything. I guess another $40 if you want to throw in quarters to do laundry.
    Trees don't grow on money

  10. #10
    Senior Member Gardenarian's Avatar
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    I've never added it up before. Monthly comes to around $700, including cell phones.
    We are currently spending a lot on improvements and landscaping (plants and bark and rocks can be surprisingly pricey.) I have not included that here but I would not be surprised if maintenance/improvements, averaged out, came to $400+ per month.

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