If you have to ask, you probably don't need one, and then there is the term "need" blenders are a luxury. That being said, I have a blendtec and love it and use it all the time. However, I had a cheaper blender and never used it.
I cook almost everything from scratch and do a lot of batch cooking so for us it is worth it. I use it for smoothies, also to make chia seed pudding, grind up grains and oats, make nut milks, make lattes and london fogs, make soup - ours actually heats up the liquid, so it takes all of 2 minutes to make a batch of tomato basil soup. I also use it powder dried veggies to make instant soup mix, I'm sure I do more, but that's off the top of my head
For Christmas I buzzed up some dried porcini mushrooms and dried lemon peels and dried jalapenos and made flavored salts for gifts, took all of two minutes and pantry ingredients and banged out a bunch of classy gifts.
I would spend sometime in your new kitchen and sort out your eating/cooing habits before you buy one, you might find that the cost is worth it like we have, but I also know lots of people who buy them with the best of intentions and never use them.