Housing Cost Revisit- What's your expense to keep your house afloat?

[Enuff2Eat]

Housing cost Revisit- What's your expense to keep your house afloat? please do NOT include your mortgage. Since we like to compare apple to apple, we like to see the cost of true housing. For now, just assume your mortgage is zero.

Mortgage: not included
Cable TV,internet: not included

Taxes: $3400
Ins: $650
Utilities: $2600
HOA: $180
BackYard work: $720
Front door repair: $120
3 new toilet+labor: $550
Window treatment: $125
New dehumidifier: $280
New humidifier: $90
-------------------------
TOTAL $8220.00

wow.. that's alot of money not including the mortgage. Money that flushed out just to keep the house afloat.

Enuff

what's your?

[aja8888]

Remember, house are "money pits", but you have to live somewhere. On our $235,000 home in Texas:

Taxes: $4800/yr
Ins: $1200/yr
Utilities: $400/mo. (water, gas, elec, cable)
Upkeep: ~ $100/mo. (misc. repairs)

$15.6K per year.

(or $1300 per month, about the same as apartment rent here)

[rbmrtn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enuff2Eat Housing cost Revisit- What's your expense to keep your house afloat? please do NOT include your mortgage. what's your?

No problem, I don't have a mortgage . My utilities include cable/internet.

Utilities $318/month 3816/yr
Tax 140/month 1680/yr
Ins 90/month 1080/yr
misc/maint 50/month 600/yr

total 598 7176

[ChiliPepr]

let's see...
Taxes: $6200
Ins: $1100
Utilities: $7200 (Electric, water, wood)
BackYard work: $3000 (no including all the time supplies the SO puts into the yard)

Total: $17,500, about $1,500 a month.

[Brett_Cameron]

Property Tax: $914/year
Insurance: $2,418/year
HMA: $100/year
Yard Care: $900/year
LP Gas, electricity, water, garbage collection: $4,474/year
2013 House Repairs/Maintenance: $2,125. (includes central AC external unit replacement)

Total: $7,599.62 per year or $633 per month for 3000 sq ft, 4 br, 1 1/2 story house on a lake.

[Lcountz]

Interesting....It may he helpful too to include the state you live in, and whether it is "rural" or "urban" in nature....

Here goes...North-Western PA, on edge of Allegheny National Forest, rural area, 1986 ranch house value @ 165,000. on paved State road, approx 1 acre. Water Well, Turkey Mound Septic System.

Annual Costs From 2013 Spreadsheet:

Real Estate/School Tax: 1862
Home Insurance: 612 (repl. cost 230,000)
Natural Gas Heat/HW: 1311 (includes semi- heated 30x30 garage)
Electric Co-op 1040
Garbage Pickup 144

TOTAL: 4969/year or 414/month.

About the same as an apartment rentals around here, WITHOUT utilities.

[Meadbh]

Condo fees $265/month = $3180/year
Property tax $1650/year
Insurance $300/year
Utilities $25/month = $300/year
Maintenance and improvement $800/year (based on underspending a budget of $1000)

Total $6230
No mortgage
British Columbia

[jkern]

Property Tax: $440/month
Utilities: $375/month
Insurance: $100/month
HOA: $50/month
Maintenance: $100/month

Total: $1065/month $12,780/year

4 bedroom house in SF Bay Area (2050 sq ft)

[aja8888]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meadbh Condo fees $265/month = $3180/year Property tax $1650/year Insurance $300/year Utilities $25/month = $300/year Maintenance and improvement $800/year (based on underspending a budget of $1000) Total $6230 No mortgage British Columbia

Utilities $25/month? Our fuel cost adjustments on power use are more that that per month. How do you do this? Is cable/TV/Internet included?

[W2R]

Costs during ALL of 2012 (annual, not monthly, thank goodness!):

Taxes: $956
Insurance (homeowners+flood): $2301
Utilities: $1612 (water/sewer/trash, natural gas, electric)
HOA: $0, no HOA
Lawn guy to cut the grass: $1400
Plumber and new hot water heater: $618
Hurricane repairs (replace wall to wall carpet in living room): $511
Termite Inspection $95
-------------------------
TOTAL $7493 ( = $624/month)

The two bedroom apartment I lived in prior to buying my house is now going for $1105/month, and my quality of life is much better now. But then, I have paid off my mortgage so I would expect an advantage in my monthly outgo.

This is for a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1600 square foot home on a 50'x100' lot in a relatively nice New Orleans inner suburb (very urban, Lcountz!).

[MikeWillRetire]

Property tax and insurance: 4200
Utilities: 2280
Water and Sewer: 780
HOA: 300
Maintenance: 6000 (it is high because I save for future renovation)

Total: 13,560/year = 1130/month

3 bedroom house in Maryland (1300 square foot plus a 625 sf basement)

[Enuff2Eat]

Wow, With all the number posted so far. No wonder why people need to work much longer to support and keeping their housing just afloat.

How does a low income person can afford to keep their house? let alone eating, and unexpected bills?? $600-$1200/mon without mortgage?? Social security aren't gonna cut it. :-(

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enuff2Eat Wow, With all the number posted so far. No wonder why people need to work much longer to support and keeping their housing just afloat. How does a low income person can afford to keep their house? let alone eating, and unexpected bills?? $600-$1200/mon without mortgage?? Social security aren't gonna cut it. :-(

My $624/month cost is about half of the average SS payment ($1269/month in July, 2013 according to ssa.gov). So, that would only leave me with $644/month for everything else.

But then, if I had nothing but SS for retirement, I would be living in a much smaller, cheaper house. This one is a median priced home, here. People need to be realistic about what they can and can't afford.

[NW-Bound]

Retirement on just SS, and for a single person? Where's Masterblaster with his photo when we need him?

Oh well, I will have to do the job. Here's how one can live for $1000/month.

[bld999]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enuff2Eat Wow, With all the number posted so far. No wonder why people need to work much longer to support and keeping their housing just afloat. How does a low income person can afford to keep their house? let alone eating, and unexpected bills?? $600-$1200/mon without mortgage?? Social security aren't gonna cut it. :-(

Also, [without having looked very closely] it's looking like most rental units in the U.S. are seriously under priced.

[kjpliny]

14,500 Taxes
2,000 Insurance
2,200 Electric
1,850 Gas Heat
1,800 Cable/Phone/Internet
1,300 Lawn
1,200 Pool
-------------------------------
24,850

So about $30k/year if you include home maintenance and repairs.

[ziggy29]

While my wife is working as clergy and we have a parsonage provided for our use, we pay about $10 per month on a renter's policy and maybe $20 a month on average for little around the home things we fix up a little on our own. All the other significant expenses and utilities are assumed by the church (only the satellite TV bill is our responsibility, and if we get better Internet here, I'd probably give that up). So our own "housing costs" are probably less than $500 a year right now.

This is how you can live pretty well on a household income of about $30K.

We are probably burning close to $4000 a year on the house we're trying to sell, but we hope an offer is coming early next week; our agent seemed to think that was coming when I talked to him yesterday.

[Janet H]

2,900 Taxes
2,300 Insurance
3,600 Electric, water, garbage
1,800 Cable/Phone/Internet
3,100 repairs, Lawn, etc

---

14,700

[pb4uski]

Not quite sure what the point is but I'll contribute.

~ 2,000 sf lakefront home in northeastern Vermont

Property taxes.........$5,950
Insurance....................550
Propane....................1,250 (heat, hot water and propane cook stove/oven)
Cord wood...................450
Electricity....................950
Snow removal..............500
Repairs/maint...........1,500 (provision, varies from year to year)
Telephone....................150 (Ooma Premier)
Satellite TV..................800 (Dish, 2 tuner DVR & one other TV)
Internet.......................600
Trash/recycling.............200
Total.....................$12,900

[Major Tom]

I don't think this thread really applies to me as I don't own a home, but I'll put my 2 cents in anyway (as I did the last time this subject came up in a thread). As you don't want mortgage included, I suppose that means you don't need to know how much rent I pay - but I'll tell you anyway.

After my rent of $640/month is paid, my other housing related expenses are minimal -

Electricity/water/gas - included in rent
Maintenance - included in rent
Landline + DSL service - $30
No cable

I live in the East Bay part of the SF Bay area.