Do you know all of the costs associated with owning a house? Like every last expense other than your mortgage? Well in this video and article we are going to break down a real world example of every single expense you need to know. Let’s go!

For this example, let’s lay down the basis of where our numbers are coming from.

Purchase Price: $300,000

Down Payment: 5% = $15,000

Loan Amount: $385,000

Interest Rate: 3.25%

So the first and most obvious payment when buying a house is your monthly mortgage payments. This includes your principal and interest. Based off our numbers above your monthly principal & interest is $1,240.

If you are interested in getting an estimate of what your monthly mortgage payment would be on a house with a different sales price, visit this mortgage calculator to play around with different numbers.

Every neighborhood is different. Older neighborhoods typically have a lower tax rate than the new construction neighborhoods.

In this example, we are going with a property tax rate of 2.27%. So in this case your monthly tax payments are $450. Don’t worry though, this will be included in your overall monthly payment to your mortgage company.

This brings our total so far up to $1,690.

This number depends on several factors. The age of the home, the condition, if it is located in a flood zone or coastal county, age of the roof, and the value of the home.

In this case, we are going to assume your yearly premium is $1,200 annually or $100 monthly. And since we are talking about monthly expenses, let’s roll with that number.

This brings up our number to $1,790.

This number includes your principal, interest, taxes, and insurance. Most commonly referred to as PITI. This is your total monthly payment to your mortgage lender.

But we aren’t stopping there! We have more expenses to cover..

If the property you are interested in has an HOA, you will have to pay yearly dues. The amount is different for every subdivision, but in this case we are going to say $500 a year. Broken down monthly that comes down to $41.

Add that to our previous number and we are now at $1,830.

This number can vary wildly from person to person. And if you watch HGTV or your spouse is constantly scrolling Pinterest, you might be in danger of spending some serious money on home renovations. Luckily, if you have an iPhone, you have the ability to limit your significant others screen time on Pinterest, but be careful poking the bear! You don’t want to get yourself hurt! Trust me.

Anyways, for this we are going to factor in things like replacing air filters, changing water filters, pool maintenance (if you have one) and just general maintenance and cleaning that comes along with homeownership. So our number comes out to around $2,000 yearly. Broken down monthly, that is $166 a month.

This brings our new number up to $1,996.

The average expense for this depends on if you are taking care of the yard yourself of hiring landscapers every week or bi-weekly.

For this example, we are hiring a landscaper and going with an average of $50 a month.

Add this to our previous number and our new monthly number is $2,046.

Next up is the second biggest expense after property taxes. These can add up quickly.

• Electricity: $200
• Water, Trash, Sewer: $60
• Gas: $20
• Tv & Internet: $120

Total Utility Costs: $400 Monthly

Our new and final number is $2,446 / month.

So, for our example of purchasing a $300,000 home, your total monthly cost to own that home is $2,446 per month or $29,352 per year.

Obviously, this number can be vastly different from person to person or house to house, but at least you have somewhat of a baseline for reference. The biggest thing to pay attention to when choosing a house is the property taxes in the neighborhood. Since Texas doesn’t have a state income tax, the state makes up the difference through property tax. The higher the value, the higher the taxes.

If there is a property that you have in mind and would like a better idea of how much it’s going to cost you, give us a shout! We are happy to help.

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Don’t forget to check out our other blogs and videos for more information on all things real estate.