Your housing cost in retirement

[shotgunner]

I started a full retirement this past August. The city I live in just set the tax rate for the next year. Living in NH property tax is a big deal. I live about an hour north of Boston. I have a very modest home, small ranch, 1000 sq ft finished, full basement, 2 car carport, on a house lot. My cost of housing not including maintenance is about $880 a month. This includes prop tax, heating fuel, water and sewer, electric service, home insurance, trash collection, cable TV and internet and an ADT security system. For this year I think it's pretty inexpensive living arrangement. $800 a month would rent a single bedroom apartment in town house style apartment complex.

I am wondering, How does this compare with others?

 

[eytonxav]

Living in a no state tax state, Texas property taxes and sales taxes are high. I receive a generous over 65 property tax exemption, but am paying $600 month just in property tax on a 2500 sq ft home.

 

[petershk]

I live in socal. Taxes/insurance are about 1200/mo on a 900k house (3 bed, 2 bath 2300 sqft now worth about 1.3-1.4... Yeah... Nutty). Utilities about 200-300/mo. Maintenance probably 150-250 but too early to tell

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Early Retirement Forum mobile app

 

[pb4uski]

Our housing budget is about $1,125/month for a ~2,350 sf lakefront home in rural Vermont. Our property taxes include a "lakeside premium" via higher land value on our property tax appraisal.

Home Insurance	758
Property Taxes	6,938
Propane	1,279
Firewood	375
Electricity	960
Maintenance and repairs	1,500
Snowplowing	800
Telephone	162
Television	720
Internet	720
	13,492

 

[Sojourner]

Here in the suburbs of metro Atlanta, things aren't quite so pricey. Property taxes for my 2400 sq ft two-story house are $2,700/year. Home insurance is $700/year. Including things like utilities, TV/phone/internet, HOA fees, and routine maintenance, total cost is about $8500/year.

 

[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.

 

[Moemg]

Waterfront Large home south Florida $1017 for everything including flood insurance and utilities.

 

[Cobra9777]

I'm in Texas with high property tax, but no state income tax. House is 4,500 sqft on 2.2 acres with a pool, large pond, and two detached buildings. It's 50 years old, and not particularly energy-efficient, so maintenance and utilities are quite high. Here's a breakdown of our annual housing costs:

Property tax	9,961
Home insurance	1,517
Electricity, water, waste	6,152
Natural gas	1,082
Repair & maintenance	5,700
Phone, TV, internet	1,056
Home security	220
Total	25,688

Current plan is to stay in this house for another 5-7 years (possibly a bit longer) and then downsize to a 2,500 sqft house where the annual cost will be sub $15K.

 

[jim584672]

816 sq ft 1 bedroom condo, Long Island, NY

Maint Condo $3,793 (Includes heat, water, gas, landscaping, snow removal)
Mortgage 0
Taxes 2,599
Electric 600
Internet 778
------------------------
TOTAL per year 7,770
per month 648

 

[Danmar]

Really depends on your real estate. Maybe if we looked at it as a multiple of square footage or of total spend or percentage of market value it would be more comparable. Our real estate expenses represent about 22% of our total after tax spend and about $15 per square foot per year. Total maintenance costs are about 3.3% of total market value per year. These costs include everything. We keep our places pretty well maintained.

 

[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.

 

[rodi]

Interesting what folks include. I would not have included cable tv/internet since those are items I could cut if I had to - and would likely have if I rented. OP did not include phone - which makes sense since you'd likely have a phone if you rented or owned...

My bills are a little atypical - we built a granny flat - so property taxes and water bill include that - (not seperately metered) Our property tax covers the primary house and the land the granny flat is on, but we have a separate landlord policy for the structure. That said - we get $1400/month income... so the bills are worth it.

Here's what I have annual:

Insurance	1201.94
rental unit insurance	511.39
gas/electric primary	936.91
water and sewer both units	1415.41
prop taxes (both units, includes trash)	3236.12
tv and internet (cable, netflix, etc)	878.71
total	8180.48

Home maintenance and remodels adds $8k/year for the past 5 years - but that's because we've
- remodeled the kitchen
- replaced 16 windows (still have 6 left.)
- are remodeling our master bath
- replaced our concrete driveway with pavers
...
I budget $5k/year - but also have funds set aside for future improvements.

All this is on a 1960's 2000sf primary home, circa 2008 700sf granny flat on a 1/4 acre lot 10 minutes from the beach. The value is somewhere around a million - but that's not what we paid (or anywhere near close). Property taxes are lower than typical because of prop 13 and inherited prop 13 tax rates since I bought from my parents and had the original rate transferred. The granny flat was assessed at current rates of 2008 - so it is about 2/3's of the property taxes, even though it's all on the same bill. I don't worry about the value of the house since it's paid for and in any other part of the country would be worth about 300k. (Expensive dirt). The only factor I include the home value in is my plan B for market catastrophe and/or long term care costs for both of us for multiple years...

 

[tmm99]

I started a full retirement this past August. The city I live in just set the tax rate for the next year. Living in NH property tax is a big deal. I live about an hour north of Boston. I have a very modest home, small ranch, 1000 sq ft finished, full basement, 2 car carport, on a house lot. My cost of housing not including maintenance is about $880 a month. This includes prop tax, heating fuel, water and sewer, electric service, home insurance, trash collection, cable TV and internet and an ADT security system. For this year I think it's pretty inexpensive living arrangement. $800 a month would rent a single bedroom apartment in town house style apartment complex.

I am wondering, How does this compare with others?

How much is your cost if you do not include "cable TV and internet and an ADT security system"?

...Just curious.

 

[jkern]

2050 sq ft 4 bedroom home is SF Bay Area:

Property tax: $455/month
Insurance: $85/month
HOA: $45/month
Fire Fee: $10/month
Utilities: $400/month

Total: $995/month

 

[youbet]

I started a full retirement this past August. The city I live in just set the tax rate for the next year. Living in NH property tax is a big deal. I live about an hour north of Boston. I have a very modest home, small ranch, 1000 sq ft finished, full basement, 2 car carport, on a house lot. My cost of housing not including maintenance is about $880 a month. This includes prop tax, heating fuel, water and sewer, electric service, home insurance, trash collection, cable TV and internet and an ADT security system. For this year I think it's pretty inexpensive living arrangement. $800 a month would rent a single bedroom apartment in town house style apartment complex.

I am wondering, How does this compare with others?

It looks like you forgot to include the opportunity cost of having whatever your house would sell for included in your total housing costs. Without this, comparing your cost to renting doesn't work.

 

[Bamaman]

2350 sq ft 3 bedroom home with 900 square ft finished basement on 3.5 acres in Northwest Alabama:

Property tax: $0 because wife is disabled. If paying taxes, it'd be $55 a month
Insurance: $110 month
Electricity/natural gas/water/Garbage: $175 month
Upkeep: $50 month

We are truly blessed to have not only the lowest cost of living, but the lowest price of housing anywhere. The low cost of living allows our citizens to have a high standard of living even in retirement.

 

[scrabbler1]

816 sq ft 1 bedroom condo, Long Island, NY

Maint Condo $3,793 (Includes heat, water, gas, landscaping, snow removal)
Mortgage 0
Taxes 2,599
Electric 600
Internet 778
------------------------
TOTAL per year 7,770
per month 648

My expenses are similar to yours. I pay $541 a month for my studio apartment in a Long Island (NY) co-op and that includes all maintenance and property taxes, net of STAR rebate. It includes $67 a month for an indoor garage parking spot.

 

[pb4uski]

Interesting what folks include. I would not have included cable tv/internet since those are items I could cut if I had to - and would likely have if I rented. OP did not include phone - which makes sense since you'd likely have a phone if you rented or owned... ....

I attempted to include what was included in the OP and i included the details so the OP could exclude things as desired.

 

[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.

 

[Midpack]

Per year 2270sf single family detached home, distant suburb of Chicago.

Comparing completely different states and homes seems suspect and like some others, I don't consider some of these home expenses but FWIW:

Insurance	$1,081
Lawncare	$ 726
Other	$2,233
Prop Tax	$1,893
SFPOA	$ 850
Gas/electric	$1,677
Phone	$1,121
Sewer	$ 780
Trash	$ 163
Water	$ 485
Internet	$ 599
Sat TV	$ 849

 

[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]

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]

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.