True Cost of Owning a Home

[cschin4]

The True Cost of Owning a Home
Your mortgage payments are only a fraction of what you'll pay once you move into a house.

By Cameron Huddleston

May 24, 2007

If you're entertaining thoughts of buying your first home now that the housing market is cooling off and prices are coming down, take note: The cost of home ownership might be a lot more than you think.

I'm not talking about the down payment or monthly mortgage payments. Although buying a home is a big investment, owning one comes with a new set of expenses you may not have had while renting or living with Mom and Dad. These extras can put a strain on your daily finances if you aren't prepared.

Read the rest The True Cost of Owning a Home - Kiplinger.com

[project15]

I'm not a home owner, but I expected most of these things. It's pretty helpful to actually get real prices of these things.

[tinapbeana]

i think this makes the assumption that people are renting an apartment, rather than an actual house. personally, i've always rented freestanding houses.

my utilities went down when i bought my house (at twice the size of my rental). also, i have 2 rooms that aren't currently furnished, and i am in no hurry to change that. when i do, they are purchases i would have made whether i owned a home or rented because i've always lived in a house and have therefore always 'needed' a dining room table. ditto the washer and dryer.

[bigsaver]

11k a year sounds like an average as far as upkeep on a house. Truth of the matter is it could be worse. Out of curiousity, does anyone actually know what a homeowner's policy would cover if a house were destroyed in something like a fire? How would one be compensated?

[cschin4]

Most homeowner's policies are clear in the amount they will cover. I think most people get "replacement" costs on their home which would be the value of the home and the contents. But, generally, the homeowners are responible for showing the value of the contents in the form of receipts, video, etc. They recommend that one takes a video of the home's contents, estimate the values and put the video tape in a safe deposit box so if there were a catastrophe that it wouldn't get lost. Anyway, that is what I was told. But, I wonder how many people actually do that? I know we haven't. And, I would guess that valuing the "contents' is fairly tricky and laborious vs. the home itself.

[tinapbeana]

i know with our homeowner's they determined the replacement value of the home and then used that to determine the personal property coverage, which is based on a percentage of the replacement homevalue.

they calculated a home replacement value of 140k, over 2x what we paid, which resulted in personal proerty coverage of 110k and 14k coverage for our freestanding shed in the back. if we felt we needed more than 110k in coverage for personal property (WHAT?!??) there are riders we could add for jewelry, furs, firearms, computer equipment, etc. in order to cover higher value items.