Poll: Annual Housing cost/SF

[zinger1457]

About 2.7 here in SE Arizona. Mortgage is paid off, cost of living is relatively low in this area, mild year round weather so no extreme heating/cooling costs.

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by samclem Some of my square feet are definitely pulling their weight more than others. My kitchen, bathroom, and MBR square feet should be grousing at my basement and guest bedroom square feet to be more useful. If the "authorities" came around and actually charged me a buck per month for each square foot actually in use, and if I could just section off and "cede" unused square feet in my house to avoid the charge, I'd probably clean out a lot of junk and tell guests I'd be happy to put them up at a nearby hotel when they visit.

That's essentially what I did when I moved from a 3 BR house to my 2 BR dream house. So far, it has worked out much better than I had thought it would. As in, nobody really cares except me, and I'll survive. I have saved considerable $$ compared with buying a larger house.

[stepford]

If we're going to get persnickety about "useful" square feet then I should certainly add my garage (which includes my laundry and shop areas). This would add about 40% to the "official" living area of my house and drop my $7/sf down to about $5.

[Big_Hitter]

I'm at about 7.25

[Mulligan]

About $8.... Still have a mortgage payment.

[sheehs1]

In southeast Virginia and if I include:
1. Homeowners insurance
2) Property Taxes
3) Utilities (electric, water, sewer and trash)
4) T.V. and Internet

It's $3.2 dollar/sf

If I add in $5,000/year for mulch and the occasional handy man to help mulch and weed beds and prune trees I can not get to, then it's $4.6 dollars /sf.

I cut my own grass, do not have a mortgage and do not have a maid. (although, thinking about it!).

I did not include that projects I elect to do for improvements (which have been plenty the last 3 years!) or projects coming down the pike, such as a new roof.

[scrabbler1]

About $14 PSF for a studio apartment in a co-op on Long Island. I have no mortgage but my co-op has its underlying mortgage. Besides the list of expenses, I include my monthly parking fee to park in my building's indoor, heated parking garage.

[Tom52]

1477 sq ft ranch in rural Iowa with the following yearly expenses:
Taxes $2708
Insurance $900
Gas/elect. $1800
Water/sewer $450
So just the re-occuring yearly costs are $5,158 or $3.49/sq ft
I consider internet/cable TV as entertainment, not cost of housing, but since it is listed in the poll that would be another $1,800/yr which would increase the total to $4.71/sq ft
If I estimate what is average spend for repairs, lawn maintenance and occasional roof, water heater, furnace a/c replacement, etc. it would probably add at least $5,000/yr which would increase the total to $8.10/sq ft. We do not have a mortgage.

[fleefromhome]

$16 per square foot in suburban Central Ohio with mortgage for 5 more years.
$7 without mortgage.

[CaliKid]

A lot depends on what you include. We spend a lot but we send an extra couple grand a month at the mortgage. Plus last year we probably spent $25k on improvements and repairs. Might spend more this year on home improvements if I am not able to slow things down with my better half. Lol.

[kaudrey]

About $16/sf in northern VA (just outside DC).

[Silver]

Orlando Florida = $6.61 per SF.


No mortgage. No pool. $2,675 a year in HOA fees.

[dixonge]

$22.85 in north Austin *shocked face*

Rent (includes water/sewer) + electricity + insurance + Internet. 642 sq. ft. Apartment. Not even close to the nicer parts of town, below average rental costs. I'd hate to see the numbers for smaller studio lofts downtown...

[Lakedog]

Florida, oceanfront condo, no mortgage - $6.84/SF (with property tax being half of the annual cost).

[gardenfun]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FIREd Currently: renting in downtown San Francisco: $65 per sqft Next year: owning a house free and clear in a medium-size southern city: <$5 per sqft. Vacation condo owned free and clear in large European metro area: $7 per sqft

I hear ya.

$55 for a 1 bedroom apartment in Lafayette, an east bay suburb of San Francisco. For this I have the privilege of driving in 6 lanes of slow traffic pretty much any time of the day. And that's on the surface streets, not just the freeways.

So after 4 years of renting, I am taking on a mortgage again. In Chico, a mellow college town north of Sacramento. My mortgage payment for a 4 bedroom 2 bath house including taxes and insurance will be $600 less per month than what I am paying to rent this 500 sq ft apartment.

Yes, yes, I know my utilities will go up and there will be maintenance, etc, etc. But it's crazy to pay this kind of rent when I don't have to commute to a j*b to go to in this increasingly unlivable area.

[sakowitzm]

$5 - $6 in Northern Virginia, 20 miles west of DC, a few miles south of Dulles Airport. No mortgage.

[Danmar]

Quite a range of costs. Obviously a mortgage makes a big difference.

[2017ish]

Ignore the under $2 response. "Math is hard."

We actually are in $13-14 range now due to being midway on a 10 year jumbo note. Will drop to $5-6 if the refinancing to 15 year fixed conforming occurs tomorrow.

4200 square ft. in semi-rural/suburban Middle TN. Additional factors keeping expenditures down: due to acreage, classified as "farm" for property tax; do most work myself; I gut rehabbed the whole house about ten years ago, which helps on both maintenance and HVAC costs.

[dand76]

$11.37 with a mortgage in rural SE Washington state. Would be $3.02 without the mortgage.

[Lsbcal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Danmar Quite a range of costs. Obviously a mortgage makes a big difference.

And maybe appreciation should be considered? Real estate is not just about negative cash flow. Also impossible to measure satisfaction but mine is very high despite the costs.

I think we need a more complicated formula to determine the winner.

Something like $8/sf in northern California.