Housing cost -all in

[Gardnr]

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?

[Teacher Terry]

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.

[Yppej]

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.

[SteveinMN]

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.

[Gardnr]

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.

[jp1]

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.

[sweetana3]

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.

[Tenngal]

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.

[ApatheticNoMore]

$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.

[Gardenarian]

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.

[Teacher Terry]

4 years ago we spent 12k on supplies and 5k for a helper for DH to do our backyard. The Astro-turf was 5k alone. That did include half the price of the fence on one side of the yard. It includes pavers and we had a ugly cement block wall separating the patio from the yard. We ended up cementing faux rock over it and now it’s really pretty. Our yard is now beautiful but I was shocked how much it cost. We did it over a 3 year period.

[rosarugosa]

Our monthly costs are about $780., but I didn't include maintenance /improvements because those are so variable. We replaced our furnace this year, but it should really be amortized over many years and I'm just not up for that degree of accounting!
My figure includes property taxes, water, oil, land phone, internet and cell, electric, and gas. We don't have a mortgage and don't pay for any TV or streaming services.

[Ultralight]

My rent alone is $934.

[rosarugosa]

We are in a high cost of living area (I think Boston is a lot higher than Columbus), but our abode is very humble and we bought our house a long time ago. So I do think we are fortunate to have pretty low housing costs.

[Teacher Terry]

I have been to Boston twice and love it. Both times we went 4 days early as our cruise left from there.

[Gardnr]

Thanks for sharing everyone! We're doing VERY well considering that our $1200/m covers 2 homes all-in.

Rosa, I didn't include the majors either as we have a large fund set aside for that. We did a new roof 4y ago on the cabin and we replaced the furnace/AC in our city home early 2017. Each was near $12k. If it's over $1k I consider it a major.

If I amortized the furnace over it's expected life of 12 years, it would be $80/m. The metal roof at the cabin will go 40+ years so it's $25/m.

[catherine]

Oh, man, I don't want to list this. I'm going to get thrown back in the dog house again.. but keep in mind that I AM SELLING my house in NJ in the spring.

Mortgage (includes taxes and insurance): 2736 + 1331 = 3967
Electricity: 170 + 150 = 320
Snow Removal: None: DIY
Cell Phone: 250 (for DH and I but I write it off my portion as a business expense)
Internet/cable/TV: 234 + 128 = 362 (offset by BIL payments of $350)
Water & Sewer: $60 (NJ)
Trash: Included in taxes in NJ, we bring our own garbage and recycling to the transfer station in VT: costs about $16/month
Wood (cabin heat): We bought two cords: cost $150/cord = $300 for the year (would be supplemented by electric heat), $25/month

TOTAL: $4644

NOW, if I sell the house in NJ and put all the funds into paying off the mortgage up here, it will be: $835 + whatever the snow removal charges are.

If I get an off-season rental for 3-4 winter months, of course, that would get added on.

[Tybee]

Kind of guessing here--currently, and will go way up if we buy something out of state in addition:

Mortgage-0
electric, landline, and phone: 200
propane heat: 150
taxes and homeowners insurance: 200
garbage: 27
water: 0
snow removal: 0
maintainance: maybe 200 a month average? This not counting big projects like new roof or new appliance, and it probably should, but mower gas, hay bales for insulation, paint, cleaning, fix it stuff?? a real guess here
cell phone: not counting here because of landline

Total per month: 777? ish

Thus my terror about taking on a mortgage! But if we could buy in maine without mortgage and sell here, could probably do something similar, although col is more out there.

Catherine, I worry that two cords might not be enough if you stay there this winter, I know we burned more than that in upstate NY. Our electric supplemental heat was horrendously expensive. I remember burning wood and still having heating bills of 200 a month. But we were not well insulated, I guess. OUr house was bigger too, which makes it harder to heat, although not very big--1400 square feet I think.

[Teacher Terry]

Wow Catherine no wonder you can’t afford to retire there. Your internet, tv, etc is double ours not to mention taxes, etc. You should definitely have some moving sales and make some money. We started to hold sales 2 years in advance when my mom was downsizing to a apartment.

[Gardenarian]

Those New Jersey taxes are steep!

[Packratona!]

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.

This is why it makes the most sense to stay in the same house for a long, long time. As I recall, this is one of the things mentioned in Millionaire Next Door book(s). Moving really does more often than not have a bad impact on net worth.
But not in all cases, it makes sense in cases when it makes sense financially of course.

[Packratona!]

Our monthly housing costs, including internet and phones, and garbage and utilities, paid off 1610 foot brand new house with two car garage in a rural but gated community:
$588 total, as follows:

$110 property taxes
$100 HOA (covers community center and community landscaping)
$ 70 Home insurance
$ 55 Water and sewer
$ 28 garbage
$140 electricity
$ 85 ISP and phones

This does not include savings for future expenditures for house maintenance, appliances. Also did not include any one time expenditures for lawn related items, or pest control. So those have to be considered when comparing costs to apartments where these things would be covered.

[pammy]

We are moving soon, so expenses then will be:

Mortgage/rent- $0
Property taxes- $10 (property taxes on 5 acres in this state is cheap!)
Electric- $150 (all electric, rural, smaller home so less than previous $200+ monthly)
Cell- $45 (2 phones, no data)
Internet- $45 (rural satellite)
Water/sewer- $0 (water well, septic)
Cable/satellite/streaming- $8 (Netflix, antennae)
Total: $258

Currently, difference of +$185 lot rent, +$50 or more electric on bigger house and inefficient cooling system = $493 monthly

[Yppej]

Septic is not free. Are you never going to pump the tank?

[Gardnr]

This is why it makes the most sense to stay in the same house for a long, long time. As I recall, this is one of the things mentioned in Millionaire Next Door book(s). Moving really does more often than not have a bad impact on net worth. But not in all cases, it makes sense in cases when it makes sense financially of course.

When I started in the OR, I worked with this wonderful gentle male surgeon. At his retirement celebration hosted by the hospital (the good old days), I met his wife. She was elegant and charming and a warm soul. She was a proud wife of a humble surgeon. What struck me then (and perhaps helped me), was that they were retiring in the very home they bought when they arrived in town to begin his career as a surgeon, fresh out of residency.

They never needed anything grand. They wanted their lovely home with all it's memories of time, of family, of successes and heartbreaks.

God Rest his Soul:(

[iris lilies]

When I started in the OR, I worked with this wonderful gentle male surgeon. At his retirement celebration hosted by the hospital (the good old days), I met his wife. She was elegant and charming and a warm soul. She was a proud wife of a humble surgeon. What struck me then (and perhaps helped me), was that they were retiring in the very home they bought when they arrived in town to begin his career as a surgeon, fresh out of residency.

They never needed anything grand. They wanted their lovely home with all it's memories of time, of family, of successes and heartbreaks.

God Rest his Soul:(

That is a beautiful tribute

[Packratona!]

When I started in the OR, I worked with this wonderful gentle male surgeon. At his retirement celebration hosted by the hospital (the good old days), I met his wife. She was elegant and charming and a warm soul. She was a proud wife of a humble surgeon. What struck me then (and perhaps helped me), was that they were retiring in the very home they bought when they arrived in town to begin his career as a surgeon, fresh out of residency.

They never needed anything grand. They wanted their lovely home with all it's memories of time, of family, of successes and heartbreaks.

God Rest his Soul:(

I would have loved to have stayed in our original home, and have regrets for not trying to do so. But the writing was on the wall, high tax state with limited job opportunities for my husband. But I was burned out, quit my stable decent income job, and we moved to low tax state. Was it worth it? Not sure. Relocation is costly, and we had to leave family. Looking back, I kind of wish we had tried to stay. But can't go backwards in time!

[pinkytoe]

My sentiments mirror Packratonis. Financially, moving out of state was a great move but in matters of the heart, it has been a little challenging. I will have to tally our house expenses but not including improvement, probably around $350-500 a month.