Estimating my monthly housing costs, playing with spreadsheets

[LD_TAndK]

Just for fun I made a spreadsheet to try and figure out how much my house has cost me monthly, if I sold today. I include opportunity cost on the down payment, but not on the ongoing expenses (because I'm considering this as a comparison to renting).

I don't know my maintenance costs or how much exactly I would end up with after sale. Playing with those numbers I get optimistically: $1,240 and pessimistically: $1,850

Pretty wide range but still much less than renting in my location. Zillow estimates my house rents for $2,550 monthly. Anyways, spreadsheet and screenshot attached.

[GilesMM]

Rent it out for double your cost and buy another one!

[JupiterGreen]

Interesting. We couldn't rent a house for the cost of what we are going to be paying for mortgage + expenses (just bought it). Mainly because there are very few (if any) year round rentals around here given it is touristy area, so should there be one of a similar size it would be very expensive. Even if renting were cheaper, like the apartment we are moving out of, honestly I'd rather not ever do it again for any amount of savings. The decision to own a house might be like like having kids, some think it's worth it despite the cost and benefits. We're just "house people". But I'm glad for you that you've found yours to be financially optimized for your location. 

[McStache]

I think your calculation might be missing your current equity. On the "Sale Gain" line, that seems to be the current value * 0.9 (side note - 10% transaction costs seem a bit high?) minus the purchase price, but since you've been paying down the mortgage for several years now, instead of the purchase price it should be your remaining mortgage. Or if not there, I'd think it should be accounted for somewhere

Edit: Wait! Is it because you only count interest in the expenses that this all maths out fine?

[Scandium]

Rent it out for double your cost and buy another one!

My one house is already a pain in the ass. Adding another one is about as tempting as 4 more children!