What's your basic housing expenses after retirement (excluding electric, gas. water)?

Property Taxes + HOA dues + insurance runs about $3600 per year which is $300 per month (central Indiana). Since we don't have a mortgage, we pay those as they come due, not monthly.
 
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It's monthly, but it includes stuff like buying new roofs, appliances, furnaces, water heaters, plumbing problems, interior and exterior painting, etc. Stuff you only buy every 10 to 40 years. If you amortize it over time, it does come out to about 1%. So there is never really a month when I spend $1500. A lot of months, it's zero. Last January when the water main and built-in oven broke, it was $6500. I'm not really physically capable of doing most of this stuff myself so my situation may not be that typical.
 
No mortgage. Paid cash 4 years ago.
Current value about $450k.
Taxes, insurance, HOA comes to about $285 a month.
 
Live in a 55+ community about 30 min South of St. Augustine in FL, across the street from the beach. House paid for. HOA is $140 month (pool, clubhouse, exercise room, activities, high speed internet), Property Taxes 1700 yr, $141 month, insurance (hurricane, liability, flood) $1,300 yr, $108 month, for a total of $390 per month, 1200 sq ft home, value approx $240K...pay $60 a few times a year to have it pressure washed, house is 4 years old so everything in good shape, anticipate the A/C rusting out within 10 years due to being so close to the water!
 
jldavid47 said:
Property Taxes + HOA dues + insurance runs about $3600 per year which is $300 per month (central Indiana). Since we don't have a mortgage, we pay those as they come due, not monthly.
Click to expand...
This is why, once we paid off our mortgage, we set up automatic transfers of $400/mo to a "property tax" savings account. We figured it was easier than having to suddenly pay the whole bill once a year. (It's actually half in September, then half in December, but that's not much of a difference.)
 
Wow. I'm starting to see a theme here. It's either 1) early retirees have paid off their mortgages or 2) people who paid off their mortgage likes to post on forums how low their housing expenses are.

I'm thinking #2.
 
No mortgage and no HOA
Property Taxes - 350
Insurance - 130
Water & Sewage - 175
Power (Gas & Electric) - 135
Total = $790 per month
 
Sorry, missed the excl. utilities part,
Property Taxes - 350
Insurance - 130
Total of $480 per month
 
I have two ways to look at our housing bills.

We have a granny flat - it has a rental unit insurance policy. The property taxes are for the entire property (our home, and the granny flat, and the land they are on.) Because of California's odd property tax rules under prop 13, we pay 1/3 of the total property tax for the land and our older, 2000sf house... and 2/3's for the 700sf granny flat building built more than a decade ago. That's because it was built more recently and the tax increase was based on *then* market value of the addition.

If I estimate our housing expenses w/out the granny flat it's about $2150/year.

If I calculate our actual housing expenses with the granny flat it's $5037.

But since our granny flat gives us rental income - our housing costs are NEGATIVE $10k. (in other words - we make money) (That's adjusted for typical maintenance on the rental unit.)

But - for your purposes - the $2150 is probably the best number to use.
 
45 and Alive

No Mortgage (975sf bungalow)
No HOA
Taxes $42/mo
Insurance $85/mo
Reel mower and weed eater for lawn care ($15/mo fuel and string 8mo out of the year)
Vicksburg, MS (living the dream)
 
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Hmm, personally I believe in carrying no debt whatsoever. We live in a house valued somewhere around $500k and Hungary has zero property taxes (although there is a city tax for street flowers and street maintenance which is bout $200 a year). Home owners insurance is bundled with our car and second adjacent home but is less than $1000 per year for all three. Our expenses on electricity runs around $120 a month, water runs around $40 a month, and gas less than $40 a month. We have a well but the ground water is only at 15 feet so too close to the surface for drinking however, is great for the garden. We use around 6,000 liters a day in the garden which is more or less free.

This was our whole point to moving to Hungary as it has a relatively low cost of living yet high quality lifestyle and is in the exact center of Europe. Yes, there are political issues which might offend many but so far it doesn't intrude into our lives. We are Jewish and feel no particular antisemitism here but did experience it in the US and especiallyin the military where I served for 36 years (in uniform 26 years and as a civilian another 10 years).
 
We’re in the minority here. We just bought a new house, have a mortgage and will probably always have one unless we downsize into one of our paid off rental units.

All in w utilities HOA ins mortgage water/sewer 1850.00.
 
Right now, my mortgage is around $2870/mo, which includes property taxes (about $4800/yr) and insurance (about $1300/yr). They screwed up estimating my property taxes and didn't take enough out initially, so for the time being my payment is extra high, to boost the reserves. I think it's set to go down by around $150/mo around September/October, when they reconcile.

The principal/interest portion of the mortgage is about $2220/mo. The electric bill is averaging around $200/mo. I've been in this house since September 2018. Cheapest bill I've had was around $120, and the worst was $265. Heat is provided by two heat pumps, one for the upstairs, one for the downstairs. The downstairs unit has an oil backup, while the upstairs is all electric. I had the oil tank filled up about a month or so ago, and it cost around $380. Last time I'd had it filled was February 2019, so that one tank lasted about 14 months, and took a little over 200 gallons. The 2019-20 winter was a bit mild, though. As a reference point, the house is about 2400 square feet, plus 960 square feet of basement. The basement is heated/cooled, although not that effectively. It also has what I guess you'd call a 3-season room, which is maybe another 430 square feet. It's closed in, finished off, and has electricity, electric baseboard heat, and a big window a/c. I might run the a/c every once in awhile in the summer, but never turn the heat on out there.

I'm on well and septic, so there's on monthly or quarterly bill for that. However, I do have to throw salt in the filtration system every once in awhile. It comes in 50 lb bags, and is around $6/bag. There's also some other chemical I have to add every once in awhile, but I forget its name, and don't feel like going down to the basement to look it up right now.

I have a swimming pool service, and they charge around $400 to open it, $95/week to service it, and around $400 to close it. I could probably handle a lot of that myself, but I'm allowing myself a splurge, there.

So, for a rough estimate, I'd guess the house is costing me about $3370/mo right now. Once the escrow adjusts, it should be around $3220. If the mortgage was paid off, it would be around $1000/mo.

When I run numbers like that, I'll admit, it does make paying the mortgage off sound tempting! But, I'm doing fine making the mortgage payment, and thanks to inflation, that ~$2220/mo in principal/interest will become less significant as time goes by.
 
Toocold said:
Wow. I'm starting to see a theme here. It's either 1) early retirees have paid off their mortgages or 2) people who paid off their mortgage likes to post on forums how low their housing expenses are.

I'm thinking #2.
Click to expand...


That's an...interesting conclusion. The only theme I noticed until your comment is "try to answer cyber888's question". :rolleyes:
 
Southern Coastal North Carolina

No Mortgage
Property tax ~$3000/year (assessed value ~395K)
Insurance ~$1500/year
HOA ~$2900/year(includes yard and common grounds maint., pools, activity centers...blah, blah, blah).
 
I am about 1050 a month for all apartment utility tax fee everything base load expenses. Add in another 200 for vehicle and groceries. I've been averaging 2100 a month all in.
 
Gee, I thought utilities were part of basic housing expenses. Oh well, anyway I spend monthly: $8.33 for HOA, $68.17 for home insurance, and $187.17 in property taxes. Total:$263.68
 
House expense

Built our dream retirement home, 2700 sq' on 3 acres, in SW Washington State 15 months ago. Have had no morgage for last 15 years. Property tax is largest annual expense at $6200, home owners and earthquake insurance $1300. Gated subdivision split actual expenses which can vary ( $450 last year). I expect additional upkeep expenses as the property and owner advance in age : )
 
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Henderson Nevada here, no mortgage, $200/month HOA (guard gated), 400/month realty taxes and $100 for insurance for a total of $700/month.

Utilities including trash, cell phone and cable/streaming $600/month.
 
Paid for as of 6/4/2020 Southern California Home valued at 800k. Property taxes just under 5k a year, HOA $99/ month, insurance $1600/year so about $650 / month.
 
Just moved into retirement home and mortgage free at last!

Moved from NC to SC.

Gated community next to Del Webb club house. Very popular retirement choice.

HOA (includes mowing, pool maint. etc) are 373/mo.

Taxes 1400/yr

Insurance - 1800/yr

Cut cable, but still $100/mo. Internet + youtube tv.

So, roughly $675/mo. without utilities.
 
We paid cash for our "new to us" house last October. Our total housing costs are $190 for property insurance.

We have no property taxes as my wife is disabled.

With 2 new heat pumps, our utilities have been running $250 recently.

I also have a lake house paid for with $90 property taxes. Utilities run $85 whether we are there or not.
 
In 2018 we downsized from our 2000+ sq ft tri-level (lots of stairs) house with ingroud pool that's about 30 min from lake cabin.

We now live in a 900 sq ft one level cabin that we built in 2017 on a large lake in north central Alabama.

Property taxes and home insurance - 900/yr, 75/m
Utilities (electric/lp gas/water/internet/TV) - 2940/yr, 245/m
HOA - 0
Mortgage - 0

We also have property at the Alabama gulf coast in an RV Resort with a 400 sq ft trailer and additional guest house 144 sq ft.

Property taxes and insurance - 780/yr, 65/m
Utilities (electric/water/sewer) - 1620/yr, 135/m
HOA - 900/yr, 75/m
Mortgage - 0
 
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