Your housing cost in retirement

[Nodak]

I am in small town ND in an 865 sq ft house with finished basement and attached garage. My expenses for everything except food and transportation is just over $600 per month.

EDIT: Just realized I hadn't included cell phone so the right number is just over $700 per monthh.

[Corporateburnout]

2900 SQ Ft Townhouse 30 miles south of Boston .

I agree with others who stated that comparing housing costs in different states is suspect but here are our cost:

Prop Tax 5850
Gas/Electric 2760
Home Insurance 600 (Master insurance included in HOA fees)
HOA fees 4670 (Incl Water/Sewer/Landscape/Snow )
Phone/Cable/Internet 2400

Total $16280 annual or $1356 monthly

[ExFlyBoy5]

2200'ish SF house on 3/4 acre lot in NW Burbs of Atlanta...

Category	Monthly	Yearly
Electricity	$132	$1584
Nat. Gas	$66	$792
H2O	$43	$516
Trash	$18	$204
Alarm	$25	$300
Internet/Cable	$133	$1596
Taxes	$73	$1843
Insurance	$157	$683
TOTAL	$627	$7518

What amazes me is the cost of internet/TV. That's a mid-level package (no HBO or other premium channels) with U-Verse and includes a monthly credit of $60 that I haggled when my last contract came up for renewal.

I didn't include my cell phone. I just switched from Ting to Republic Wireless and it looks like that expense will run me about $13 a month.

[kramer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dunkelblau A hair under 2K/mon on a 1000sf apartment in southern California including rent, all utilities, and insurance. It's about 40% lower than what a similar place runs in my previous San Jose zipcode.

Wow, before I retired in 2007, I was renting a decent 650-700 square foot one bedroom apartment in a great location in downtown San Jose and I was paying "only" $1000/month -- it was already getting under market rent by then. I left that place a couple of months after retiring. But rents exploded after I left.

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by W2R Let's see. 2014 monthly average expenses, and 2014 totals, at my old house: Category Monthly yearly Utilities $157 $1884 Property Tax $80 $959 Insurance $242 $2904 Maintenance $100 $1200 Upgrades $73 $876 TOTAL $652 $7823 (Total minus utilities) $495 $5939 Utilities include electricity, natural gas, water, sewage, trash. Insurance includes homeowners', flood, wind and hail (hurricane). This house was a 1600 square foot brick home, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, built in 1972. Property tax assessment was frozen due to being over age 65. I moved last summer and don't yet have any figures for my present home.

I didn't include cable, landline, or cell phone, which added up to another $199/month in 2014. But I dropped cable TV and my landline since then. These expenses would remain the same no matter where I lived, so I don't see them as tied to the house so much as tied to my chosen spending patterns.

[liberty53]

It would be more interesting for me if the opportunity cost of the housing was included in the numbers reported here. For example, using 4% with $500K of equity would add $20K to the annual housing cost.

Just want to see how outrageous my $27K/year of rent is compared to others.

[kneehigh]

	MONTHLY	YEARLY
PROP TAX	195	2342
HOME INS	61	732
ELECT	56	672
WATER	30	358
GAS	39	462
INTERNET	35	420
WASTE	30	360
REPAIR	?	?
TOTAL	446	5346

Just above 1700 SQFT, 3 bedroom, 1-3/4 bath with a pool in San Gabriel Valley, L.A. county. The pool is empty. No one uses it and I don't see the use of keeping it maintained year after year. I'm still paying $900/mo in mortgage for a couple more years. Once I'm done with the mortgage, I'll start doing repairs. Don't want to dip into 403B to do repairs.

[BBQ-Nut]

I'll play.


House: 2500 sq ft, 5 bd, 3 bath in San Diego
Mortgage: $1300/month, $15,600/yr
Insurance: $122/month, $1,464/yr
Property tax: $5200/yr
Electric: $0 (we have had solar since 2014 that offsets usage)
Gas: $20/month, $240/yr
Water/Sewage: $80/month, $960/yr
Maintenance: $2000/yr (for various repairs or upgrades)

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BBQ-Nut I'll play. Mortgage: $1300/month, $33,800/yr

You do opt to pay it monthly, right?

[BBQ-Nut]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo You do opt to pay it monthly, right?

yeah, bad calculation in excel..fixed above.

[robertf57]

We live in 3400+ SQ Ft mid-rise condo. Taxes are just under $4000/yr. But, HOA fee comes to $14,000/yr which includes gas, water, trash, internet, expanded cable, all exterior and garage-common areas maintenance/insurance/doorman/security system. I always thought the HOA was high. But when you consider all that is included, I guess it isn't too bad.

[Meadbh]

Quote:

Originally Posted by liberty53 It would be more interesting for me if the opportunity cost of the housing was included in the numbers reported here. For example, using 4% with $500K of equity would add $20K to the annual housing cost. Just want to see how outrageous my $27K/year of rent is compared to others.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meadbh 1122 sq ft view condo. Quick back of the envelope calculation: Condo fees: $300 per month, $3600 per year Utilities: $600 per year Internet and phone: ~$80 per month, $1000 per year Property taxes: $900 per year Insurance: $400 per year Home maintenance: sporadic. Allow $500 per year. Total: $7000 per year, or $6.23 per sq foot per year, or 14% of total lifestyle expenses. All figures are Canadian dollars.

Opportunity cost: no mortgage, $300K property. Assuming 4% ROI, that's $12,000. Total would be $19,000.

[Senator]

In MN, I will pay $2,395.78 in 2016 for a property assessed at $228,300.

Your property tax is high, because you do not have income taxes. The revenue has to come from somewhere, income, property or sales taxes.

Taxes (2016)	($200)
Insurance:Property	($110)
Utilities:Gas	($132)
Utilities:Electricty	($175)
Utilities:Garbage	($30)
Utilities:Water	($25)
Total	($671)

[NYEXPAT]

Miraflores district of Lima, Peru
1700 sq ft Oceanview Penthouse (approx $360,000). Doorman building.
Taxes = $39
Maintenance = $175.00
cable,smartphone,internet=$66
Insurance = $0 , no weather,concrete does not burn, earthquakes, I laugh in the face of danger.
Utilities = $38.00
Maid = $267.00 for 6 days a week

Total $585.00

[Floridatennisplayer]

I'll join in. I have 2 homes. Ohio and Florida. No mortgages.

Ohio
3,100 sq ft 325k
6500 yr taxes

Florida
1,328 sq ft condo
210k
9,000 yr taxes and club fees, condo fees, Internet

[papadad111]

Was just looking at this recently.

Midwest home. 9 acres. No mortgage. No landline. No cable tv or satellite. Annual:

Property tax. 1800
Insurance . 1100

Electric. 1800.
Propane. 1800.
Internet. 200.
Water. 500.
Trash. 350.
Cellphone. 1200.

Home maint. 2500.Contingency fund

Total annual: 11200

approx $950 per month.

[Danmar]

Really not sure what use this disparate data could possibly be? Real estate expense is so location specific. Not to mention type and size of dwelling. Peru vs Alabama vs New York? Really? I guess we just like to share?

[Corporateburnout]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Danmar Really not sure what use this disparate data could possibly be? Real estate expense is so location specific. Not to mention type and size of dwelling. Peru vs Alabama vs New York? Really? I guess we just like to share?

Few people including myself felt the same but shared our info for the sake of sharing.

After seeing some of the low housing cost figures it makes me reevaluate our location but only for a brief moment as DW will not consider relocation due to close proximity to family and friends.

[Danmar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Corporateburnout Few people including myself felt the same but shared our info for the sake of sharing. After seeing some of the low housing cost figures it makes me reevaluate our location but only for a brief moment as DW will not consider relocation due to close proximity to family and friends.

Agree. Amazed at how low some of these costs are. Good for you. No plans on moving either though.

[shotgunner]

I find the cost of one's housing interesting if only to see what early retiree's are paying to keep a roof over their head that includes a few amenities like cable. I suspect most ER's try to keep their costs down. Interestingly enough I posted a similar thread in 2008 when moved from FT work to PT work and my monthly cost for the same place was $792. Seven years later it is $880 and if I have done my math right that is annual inflation rate of 1.5% a year. Thanks to those who took time to share their info.