Utilities for a single family home?

[kymom99]

with trash pickup inquire of the company what your options are. many people just automatically default to the traditional sized 'can' w/ a weekly pickup when they might save significantly doing the next sized larger w/ a bi-weekly pickup. we are a household of 3 and bi-weekly works fine for us (if it's a holiday period and we will have a much larger amount i can call and opt for an extra pickup off my normal cycle).

And in some cases, like mine, trash is included in your city tax bill.

 

[Turksmom]

Central PA here. House is 2600 sq. ft. with fairly new windows, but 100 yrs. old, so not great insulation. Trash is $50 every 3 months. Gas (steam boiler radiant heating, water heater, and cooking) ranges from under $80/mo in summer to over $400/ mo in winter, water ranges $70- $90 mo. Sewer is based on water usage, but is more because of base charges- approx $120/ mo. Electricity ranges $60- $100/ mo. throughout the year.

Happy house hunting!
Oh, additional hint- check with the city office to see what building permits have been pulled for the history of the house. We were told about all of the upgrades and improvements that had been made in ours (including a bathroom added and kitchen relocated). Home inspection passed with flying colors because they can only inspect what they can see, but we later found extension cords run inside walls instead of actual wiring, pipes with the wrong size and pitch, improperly vented plumbing, etc. it turns out that not a single permit was issued and nothing was inspected! It was a very expensive lesson. Don't be frightened off by that, I have notoriously bad luck!

 

[tvguy]

Property taxes here in Canada are based on the home's Property Assessment. I find it weird the way California does it. Seems grossly unfair to me. If some senior is sitting on a $2Mil home in Vancouver that they paid $50,000 for 40 years ago - I really don't feel sorry for them. They can pay their taxes the same as everyone else or sell and cash in their huge gain (which is not taxed here in Canada as long as it is your primary residence).

Each city has different rates based on the property assessment. Here in Ottawa it is pricy. Taxes on a $500K home would be about $5K. In more expensive cities like Toronto, their rates are much lower. A home valued at twice that ($1Mil) might cost the same $5K.

Wow. You ARE mean. Forcing seniors from their homes? So where are they going to live after they sell their $2 million home since they are going to need to buy another place at current market value? Their fixed income hasn't changed.

 

[kymom99]

Wow. You ARE mean. Forcing seniors from their homes? So where are they going to live after they sell their $2 million home since they are going to need to buy another place at current market value? Their fixed income hasn't changed.

In our state we pay taxes based on assessed value, but there is a homestead exemption once the homeowner reaches 65. This lowers their tax burden quite a bit. I'm not real sure what the formula is for arriving at the exemption since I'm not there yet. We also have an Ag exemption which benefits me when paying taxes on my farm property.

 

[Searc]

with trash pickup inquire of the company what your options are. many people just automatically default to the traditional sized 'can' w/ a weekly pickup when they might save significantly doing the next sized larger w/ a bi-weekly pickup. we are a household of 3 and bi-weekly works fine for us (if it's a holiday period and we will have a much larger amount i can call and opt for an extra pickup off my normal cycle).

Or, in cases like ours, you pay $90 a year on your taxes for biweekly garbage and recycling pickup (one can for recycling, one for garbage, with your only option being one size for both) and you have no choice in who picks up your garbage.

 

[mjkacmom]

And in some cases, like mine, trash is included in your city tax bill.

Ours is included with our taxes, 2 times a week as many cans as you want, recycling once a week, large items once a week including furniture, grass/leaves once a week.

 

[rer1972]

Your Realtor should know, or be able to find out.

This!! Most realtors should have a pretty good idea of what different size homes in their area costs are in terms of taxes & utilities. I would ask your realtor, and if you haven't gotten one go find a good one.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Trash is a mess in Pa, ask neighbors you see out and about or try the Next Door app and ask neighbors there. In fact, it’s very common in Pa so I think you can probably get some good information for all your questions on there, plus find out if you have troublesome pest issues like coyote or stink bugs etc.

 

[tvguy]

In our state we pay taxes based on assessed value, but there is a homestead exemption once the homeowner reaches 65. This lowers their tax burden quite a bit. I'm not real sure what the formula is for arriving at the exemption since I'm not there yet. We also have an Ag exemption which benefits me when paying taxes on my farm property.

That's fair. If someone buys a house based on what they could afford 40 years ago, they didn't buy it at what the resale value would be today. I suspect their income hasn't gone up by that amount.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Thanks! That’s good to know, I didn’t know we could do that.

We are in NJ and have PSE&G. Before putting in an offer on our home, we could get recent billing amounts for the home directly from PSEG. We asked for peak winter & peak summer, knowing that fall and spring would be a lot less.
We have a rancher approx. 1700-1800 sf, on a crawlspace, no basement. We have the equal payment plan and it's $318/month. I like it cold in the summer and warm in the winter, 70-72 all year long.
Have fun house shopping! HTH.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Exactly. That is information your realtor should get, and too many variables as far as usage and rates for prices outside your area to be much help
I have seen people here post that their gas and electric bills run $400 a month year round. I have an all electric house and my bill runs from $80 a month in winter to $180 a month in summer, but my wife likes the house at 68 degrees year round. So we don't heat much in winter, but with 100 degree days we run the ac alot.
Garbage, Sewer and trash are one bill, $175 every other month.
Water is about $70 every other month in winter, and $180 every other month in summer when I am watering the lawn.
Don't forget property taxes. I pay $2,200 a year on a house with a market value of $450,000, but I'm in California where you base property taxes are based on what you paid for the house,with a maximum 5% tax increase per year. We've been in ours 37 years so we have a tax advantage. Someone buying my house today would face property taxes of $4,500.

Wow, even 4500 is still half of what we pay for our little rancher in NJ. Our taxes are mostly school taxes but include trash, recycling, lawn/leaf pick up weekly. That $9k also includes county taxes and fire. Houses that are valued at around 450k would have taxes around $20k. There's a mansion adjacent to our neighborhood whose taxes are over $100k/year.

 

[tvguy]

Wow, even 4500 is still half of what we pay for our little rancher in NJ. Our taxes are mostly school taxes but include trash, recycling, lawn/leaf pick up weekly. That $9k also includes county taxes and fire. Houses that are valued at around 450k would have taxes around $20k. There's a mansion adjacent to our neighborhood whose taxes are over $100k/year.

Wow, $20k for a $450,000 home? That would be the retail value of my home, and $20k would be over half my annual take home pay.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Wow, $20k for a $450,000 home? That would be the retail value of my home, and $20k would be over half my annual take home pay.

Yes it is ridiculous. We are thoroughly fed up with paying taxes through the nose. This plus federal and state income taxes and sales tax.
Sorry I don't mean to go all off topic and hijack the tread. It just amazes me how different parts of the country are so different. Continue on.

 

[winnieofpooh]

Thanks for the tips on the realtors, if you couldn’t tell we’re really new to this . We just sat down and decided we’re ready to start searching, so no realtor yet, but I’ll make sure when we have one and start the official hunt to ask her for any historic information about utilities.

The calculators I’ve been using online factor in mortgage, taxes, insurance, plus PMI/HOA if applicable, so I’ve got all those estimates.

 

[QueenIsabella]

Yeah, we've bought and sold a number of times, I know we had to provide numbers for electric, oil consumption, etc. Of course, you don't know if the previous owners were above-average or below average in their usage, but it gives you a good starting point.

What really killed us with buying a house was the unexpected stuff--our first house, the previous owners removed the bathroom towel racks and toilet paper holders, among other things. Plus, being our first home, we needed a ladder and a lawn mower and a wheelbarrow and-and-and. On the plus side, we bought much less house than the bank said we could afford, but we still felt pretty poor on our weekly trips to the home improvement store.

 

[kaytieeldr]

I’ll make sure when we have one and start the official hunt to ask her for any historic information about utilities.

Ah, so you assume your Realtor will be female, huh?

But seriously, you might think about either changing this thread (now that this question has been answered) or starting a new for what questions to ask when house-hunting.

What really killed us with buying a house was the unexpected stuff--our first house, the previous owners removed the bathroom towel racks and toilet paper holders, among other things.

They removed items that were permanently attached??? Those should have been included in the purchase &sales agreement!

 

[mjkacmom]

We are in NJ and have PSE&G. Before putting in an offer on our home, we could get recent billing amounts for the home directly from PSEG. We asked for peak winter & peak summer, knowing that fall and spring would be a lot less.
We have a rancher approx. 1700-1800 sf, on a crawlspace, no basement. We have the equal payment plan and it's $318/month. I like it cold in the summer and warm in the winter, 70-72 all year long.
Have fun house shopping! HTH.

We have pse&g too, 1800 square feet with a basement, just under $500 a month for gas and electricity.

 

[DisneyHardin]

I'm in Louisville KY. My house is about 2300 sq ft (all electric) and we keep it about 68 degrees all the time. We do the "budget" plan with the electric company and our bill is $174/month. Our water is $165 every two months. Our garbage and recycling are included with our city taxes. I believe we pay about $200/year taxes to our little "suburb city" and about $2000/year taxes to the county.

We did just put in a new heat pump and AC in July, so I'll be interested to see when it is "balance out" month for the budget plan, if we will have a refund coming since our new unit is so much more efficient.

 

[tzolkin]

Wow, $20k for a $450,000 home? That would be the retail value of my home, and $20k would be over half my annual take home pay.

Yes, this is a big factor in why people are leaving places that have such high taxes. Even if you've paid off your mortgage you may still be paying $1000+ in taxes each month.

My sister bought a fixer-upper for $80k (and that's what the assessment still is for tax purposes). Our house in NC was $250k (so, more than 3x the taxable value) and our taxes were WAY less than hers.

 

[Searc]

Wow, $20k for a $450,000 home? That would be the retail value of my home, and $20k would be over half my annual take home pay.

If you've worked for over 30 years and you're still only making less than $40,000 in annual salary, you're doing something wrong.