What is your cost of living for housing?

[Alchemisst]

Since for most people it is the biggest cost of living expense I am curious to know what housing costs are for others and or creative ways you have lowered this etc?

[big_slacker]

Since for most people it is the biggest cost of living expense I am curious to know what housing costs are for others and or creative ways you have lowered this etc?

Well, what is it for you? :D

[Alchemisst]

400/week

[Zikoris]

We're paying $826 for our studio apartment right now. We live in a non-profit housing co-operative completely managed fully by the residents, so in addition to paying rent, we also volunteer as needed for various projects and committees. Prior to this we rented a studio apartment in a house that had been renovated into individual suites (I think there were five units total), and that place was $645 when we left. Before that, I rented a basement suite for $600. We're considering eventually moving to an island, buying a cheap plot of land, and throwing up a cabin or tiny home to live in, and the cost seems to be roughly the equivalent to our current renting setup.

So I would say that for us, what keeps our costs down is 1. Keeping things teeny tiny (400 square feet max), and 2. Doing REALLY nontraditional things.

[socalteacher]

3k a month on a 15yr/ 2.5% fixed loan. Cheaper in my mind because it is less than the going rent for the place next door ($3400). In the past we rented a room and tutored to reduce costs.

[Bloop Bloop]

my mortgage is $3,300 a month but I try to put in as much as I can

[pudding]

This is one area I can't complain ;)

it's zero.      I bought a house 11 years back that has 8 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and 2 and a bit kitchens.

I live on the middle floor in 2 bedroom 1000 square feet, and 3 language students live upstairs, and 3 live in the basement.

The rents I get off them more than pay for the mortgage and other expenses. There's even some left over.

[SpareChange]

Studio apt. $700/mon in mcol US. No complaints.

[Alchemisst]

This is one area I can't complain ;)

it's zero.      I bought a house 11 years back that has 8 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and 2 and a bit kitchens.

I live on the middle floor in 2 bedroom 1000 square feet, and 3 language students live upstairs, and 3 live in the basement.

The rents I get off them more than pay for the mortgage and other expenses. There's even some left over.

Sounds like a great setup, must have cost a lot though for a house that big!

[CoffeeAndDonuts]

Our home and dining out are our least mustachian areas of expense. Working hard on the dining out habit.

Anyway, we bought a $435k home and plan approx $135k in additions this fall. Approx 1700 sq ft after. Around $300/sqft value.

The 100yo home has been successively upgraded. 4br, 3 ba, new electric, solar, garage, roof, refinished wood trim, kitchen, porch, efficient heating/cooling, etc.

We could pay it off but choose to carry about $340k in 28y of mortgage payments at 3.625% so we can stay in market.

Payments including tax and insurance are about $2150/mo. Of that, $600/mo is prop taxes and insurance. Water, sewer, garbage, gas are about another $130. Electric via solar will generate a net profit of about $60/mo despite powering our car.

Since we could pay it off, I prefer to think of it in terms of opportunity cost were it paid off. A $550k asset would generate $1833/mo under the 4% rule. Add property taxes and insurance and were at $2433/mo carrying cost before utilities.

It's a luxury for our family of 3. Indirectly it helps us live a 1 car lifestyle at 9000 miles/yr and keeps nearly all friends and family within 30 minutes on a bike in an urban area that is near ideal for us - within 3/4 mile are pool, beach, bike trail, park, grocery, school, restaurants, old high school friend with similar age kid, etc.

We plan to stay 20+ yrs including early retirement.

We cut some costs by:
* Selecting a home that prior owners kept upgrading and growing out of. We feel they repeatedly overinvested in quality while not addressing most important issues to future buyers and we got a bargain.
* Selecting a home where we recognized the issues likely better than prior owners and we're both willing to live w them and able to address them.
* Having a practical architect as a spouse is now enabling us to make improvements more cost effectively and we'll do lots of finishing work ourselves.
* Solar here is heavily subsidized at the moment. It's cash flow positive. One aspect is it doesn't trigger addt property taxes as an improvement.
* In future years, we could do short term rental while we travel during summer. In theory, our basement is a near self contained finished unit. I don't think it's likely we rent it out but it's possible.

Hardly house hacking though! It's the biggest impediment in being totally confident in declaring us fi.

It's also a thoroughly discussed and deliberate expression of our priorities and values.

[Freedomin5]

Housing is $0.
Housing-related costs (electricity, gas, water) is approx. $40 to 50 per month.

Our work contracts give us free housing in a very HCOL city. Without that perk, we would be paying anywhere between $1200/month for crap housing to $5000/month for a 3-bedroom apartment.

[beer-man]

Large 3/2 in South FL. $1200 month including taxes and insurance. 5 min to everything except work which is 20min. We are blessed

$700 mortgage
$250 insurance
$250 taxes

$1000yr HOA fees for gates and community pool/workout room

Water/sewer is $70 month, down from $140-$200 month after installing an irrigation well 4yrs ago
electric is $100-$150 month and most of that is probably Florida AC/cooling costs

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[gaja]

Our house is small and old, and in a low income part of town. So our fixed expences are low (annual numbers, converted to USD):
-$2 100 mortgage interest (1.99% interest, flexible payment plan)
-$365 property tax
-$398 waste and water
-$858 insurance (includes bikes, furniture, etc)
-$2 400 heat and electricity

On the other hand, we have some quite steep single expenses this year:
-$9 500 buy out the land lease
-$2 500 improvements to the basement and paperwork to get the basement bedrooms up to code and approved by the city
-$35 000 to replace siding, rotten windows, and install insulation (yes, there is currently 0 insulation in the walls. Yes, that gets rather cold here in Norway).

In addition, the bathrooms and kitchen in this house would probably be on most people's "need upgrade" list. For us, they are defined as wants.

[Parizade]

Numbers from last month for a 2 bedroom/1 bath condo (with garage)in a small town:
Mortgage $183
HOA $100
Utilities $147 (Electric, gas, sanitation, mobile phone, fiber internet and landline)
Property tax $80 (projected, I pay it twice a year but it works out to $80/mo)
Insurance $50 (projected)

Total $560

I work from home so no commute. I can walk to a grocery store, hardware store, post office, library, florist, or pub in minutes and during the week there is bus service to the nearest large city so I don't really need a car but I have one anyway (paid for). Wonderful neighbors, close knit community.

[YttriumNitrate]

Since for most people it is the biggest cost of living expense I am curious to know what housing costs are for others and or creative ways you have lowered this etc?

The number one thing I have done to lower my housing costs is to live in a low property tax state while working in a high property tax state. If my house were to be moved across the border, I'd have to pay about an extra $1000 a month in property taxes (and current PITI is only $1400).

[big_slacker]

Mortgage + Taxes + Insurance=$3900/month on a 30 yr fixed. HCOL area, and there isn't a lot to be done to lower cost on the #1 line item. We were actually happy to get this place and there isn't a lot cheaper anywhere that doesn't involve a huge commute.

On the plus side financially the entire reason we're in this HCOL area is my high paying tech job. So the retirement pot gets bigger really fast and once the kids are launched we're out! :D

[bryan995]

Rent a 2/2 (3/2 if you count the ‘sunroom’) in a HCOL.

2650/mo rent
30/mo insurance
220/mo electric+gas
45/mo water+trash

Good location for commuting to work.

[2Birds1Stone]

Rent 1 bedroom apartment in HCOL area - $1,100/month

It's in a basement (with decent light from 1/2 windows) and includes a loooong hallway and separate storage room for bikes/luggage/etc. 

It includes water/heat/electric/WiFi/lawn-care

We have access to a very large yard, which no one else in the rental house uses.

Landlord is cool and only bumped our rent to $1,100 from $1,080 after 4 years of living here.

We consider ourselves lucky as hell.

[Metalcat]

We *just* put in an offer on the 3rd cheapest listing in our entire city, and the two cheaper ones are disgusting and very far from downtown.

Extremely well located for us, walking distance from the downtown core/DH's work, all of the amenities we could ever want (gym, pool, carwash station, heated indoor parking, library, etc), but a very old building in a low income neighborhood, so people avoid it, even though it's a stunningly beautiful urban area with tons of public waterfront and old trees everywhere.

12 blocks away and a new apartment of the same size costs nearly 700K, ours is 140K. No lie, it's ugly as sin, but nothing a few thousand dollars and a long weekend of work couldn't fix.

[Greystache]

I live in a paid off house. My total for utilities, taxes and insurance is about $550 a month. Maintenance is a bit harder to estimate since it comes in chunks, but on average, about $1500 per year. Rents for a similar house in my neighborhood would run around $3000 per month.

[HPstache]

Pre-Marriage /kids: Duplex with $1,550 mortgage, Live on one half rent out the other for $1,000.

Post Marriage / Kids: 3/2 House $1,575 mortgage.  Miss the days of cheap living!  Still own the duplex and rent out both sides now.  Could be a safety net as well if we ever had a big life drama.

[Tuskalusa]

$3k per month for mortgage, interest, property taxes and insurance. HCOL area. This is affordable, comparatively. Largest part of this expense is property taxes.  We keep expenses down by having a very small mortgage.  This is our third house. Whenever we sold a prior home,we rolled all equity into the next home. Keeps the mortgage low in an very high-cost market. 

[davisgang90]

$2100ish mortgage for a 3500sf, 6 bedroom house.  Low(er) Cost of Living area. 

Not very mustachian but a bargain for the price. 

[CheapScholar]

Small city in Indiana.  I have what would be considered a nice but not luxury home.  Purchased for 161k in 2013 and is now worth 221k.

We have a 30 year mortgage, although we’ve paid quite a bit against it.

Monthly cost: $885 (mortgage/taxes/insurance)

Glad I left Illinois!

[Omy]

Paid off principal residence and rental property. We pay a total of $1000/month for taxes/insurance/HOAs for both properties. Rental brings in $1850/month so I guess our housing "costs" are -$850/month.

[wenchsenior]

Mortgage costs alone are little misleading b/c we refi'd a bunch of times and took out equity to buy a second property, which we later rolled into the first mortgage. Had we not done that, our original primary home mortgage would be paid off by now. As it is, we have 11 years to go on a 15-year mortgage.

So, for TWO houses in a medium sized, LCOL city:

Mortgage: ~680
Prop taxes: ~350
Insurance: ~175
Elect/Water/Gas: ~365 (~150 recently taken over by relative in second house)
Estimate sinking fund for repairs/ maintenance: ~200

So, ~$1770.00/month total costs for two houses.

One is a standard 1,600-sq. ft 3/2/2 ranch in a nice 'starter' neighborhood, the other is a 1,100-sq. ft WW2-era 2/1/1 in a mixed rental/starter house neighborhood.

If you subtract the 150$/month, then our costs are ~$1,620/month

ETA: We've cut costs over the years by not upgrading our housing. We bought the 3/2/2 in 2001 and are still in it. We bought the 2/1/1 in 2007/08 and have fully paid all the housing related costs to support my mom there, though she just this past year took over paying her own Elec/Water/Gas, so I guess you could now subtract about $150/month from our costs.

[Teachstache]

We live in a paid off 3 br/3 bathroom nearly 1,500 square foot mid-century brick ranch home. We bought it for $160k in 2012 & have made $30k in upgrades (new roof, new gutters/maintenance free soffit & fascia, new  furnace & AC, put in a fence, put in a 400 square foot paver patio, reinforced the foundation). We live in a decent neighborhood in the middle of our midsized Midwestern city. It's a mix of young families & original home owners (many of whom are unfortunately having to leave their homes for assisted living).

Our property taxes are quite high, at nearly 2.05% & we have high homeowners insurance rates, too. All told, property taxes & insurance run us $393/month.

With that being said, we love our home & our location. Our neighborhood is changing in terms of population demographics. We're within 2 miles of work, 1 mile from the grocery store and approximately 1 mile away from my parents/our son's grandparents.

[YttriumNitrate]

Small city in Indiana.  I have what would be considered a nice but not luxury home.  Purchased for 161k in 2013 and is now worth 221k.
We have a 30 year mortgage, although we’ve paid quite a bit against it.
Monthly cost: $885 (mortgage/taxes/insurance)
Glad I left Illinois!

It's really saying something that there are less than 30 replies in this thread and we already have two "stay of out Illinois" responses as ways to reduce housing costs.

[Cranky]

We have the notorious paid off house (3 bedrooms, 2 baths, nice yard). Property tax and insurance runs us around $150/month.

[Just Joe]

$850 a month (15 yrs, 3.25%, $140K) for a 1800 sq ft home in a nice neighborhood in flyover country. We're about halfway through paydown. House is supposedly worth about $50K more than we paid for it (appreciation). Utilities are perhaps $100 a month with two teens and all electric appliances. Taxes are paid as part of the house payment. Taxes are about $650 a year.

Drive to work is ~15 minutes.

Might scope out more acreage soon. Don't really need bigger house but more outside space would be nice i.e. not a neighborhood.

[Poeirenta]

We are paying $6500 per year or ~ $550/month.

Taxes and insurance: $3k/yr
Cell phones w/big data plan (for mobile hotspot): $960
Utilities (propane only):$1000/yr
Home maintenance and decor: $1600/yr

We built a home with proceeds from our city house sale ($150K). House is 950 sq. feet on 85 acres.  We have some outbuildings too; those costs show up in our maintenance category.

[beer-man]

Small city in Indiana.  I have what would be considered a nice but not luxury home.  Purchased for 161k in 2013 and is now worth 221k.
We have a 30 year mortgage, although we’ve paid quite a bit against it.
Monthly cost: $885 (mortgage/taxes/insurance)
Glad I left Illinois!

It's really saying something that there are less than 30 replies in this thread and we already have two "stay of out Illinois" responses as ways to reduce housing costs.

The key is to collect an Illinois pension but not have to live there and pay the taxes


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[BicycleB]

^haha, former IL resident here. I like my hometown in retrospect, but moved long ago. Not "partisan" for or against IL, just livin' my life.

Net cost about $500/mo for bedroom in shared house that I own in popular MCOL city (most expensive city in our state, median home price just over $300k). As best I can tell, my cost to own the property and rent out spare bedrooms is about the same as if I just rented a room from a similar landlord. In the past I made good profits being the owner-landlord after buying in a cheaper era; now sitting on lots of equity. Since I don't feel like moving, breakeven is good enough to stay.

Annual total costs, very roughly:
8k mortgage
10k taxes, insurance, maintenance, utilities
___
18k
  3k less mortgage paydown
___
15k net cash outlay per year on average

Rent is about 15k from roomies, so you could say cost is zero. But that ignores the cost of capital:
-9,600  (240k equity x 4% assumed return on alternative investment)
 2,100  (105k mortgage x 2% inflation; reduces buying power required to pay off mortgage)
_____
 7,500

Arguably I'm paying $625/month and losing money compared to rent, in return for any appreciation above inflation. OTOH, if I sold, I'd suffer from selling costs, which now include some capital gains tax (yes, really). I think the selling costs would reduce my return to roughly equal where I'm at by staying. And I kind of feel there's still some appreciation to be had, so I feel safer staying unless there's a specific reason to move on.

[Much Fishing to Do]

Mortgage is paid off.  I think the P&I regular payments were around $10k/year but I paid a lot extra to knock out quickly.

Looks like what remains now is about $10k/year
Taxes - $3k
Utilities - $6k (electric in the winter is the killer, heat with electric and up north)
Repairs - $1k
Insurance - $700

[MonkeyJenga]

Right now, it's nothing. I don't have a home base and am traveling cheap. Staying with family, and stayed with an MMM friend before that. I'll probably need to get a hotel or AirBnb in my next city for a week or two, but I'm hopeful Couchsurfing works out for part of my trip.

In DC, it ranged from nothing (cat-sitting, house-sitting, and couchsurfing) to $1,700 at the max. My only actual lease was $950 all-in.

In NYC, it ranged from $500 to $1450, all-in. The cheapest rent there lasted for a year, and I was renting a semi-private railroad-style room from friends.

After NYC and before DC, I spent nothing on rent for 5 or 6 months. Some was campaign housing, where I would camp out for a week or two while volunteering, some family, some friends, some internet strangers who became friends. Only cost of living was bus tickets, groceries, and cell phone.

[JLee]

$1950/mo for a small 2br apt in NJ, just outside Manhattan. I have a roommate.

[HBFIRE]

2600/month in HB.  2 bedroom apartment.  Optimal cost for our needs and this area.

[kaizen soze]

This is one area I can't complain ;)

it's zero.      I bought a house 11 years back that has 8 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and 2 and a bit kitchens.

I live on the middle floor in 2 bedroom 1000 square feet, and 3 language students live upstairs, and 3 live in the basement.

The rents I get off them more than pay for the mortgage and other expenses. There's even some left over.

It's not really zero, it's costing you whatever you could get by renting out the 1000 square feet. :). But seriously it sounds like a good setup.

[Archipelago]

MCOL area.

Mortgage PITI is $2650/month.
All other expenses, vacancies, utilities, repairs, & capital expenditures are $800/month.
Rental income is $4000/month which nets $500/month.

Living in a 4-unit apartment building, renting out 3 units, living in 1 unit and having a roommate as well in my unit.

[JLee]

MCOL area.

Mortgage PITI is $2650/month.
All other expenses, vacancies, utilities, repairs, & capital expenditures are $800/month.
Rental income is $4000/month which nets $500/month.

Living in a 4-unit apartment building, renting out 3 units, living in 1 unit and having a roommate as well in my unit.

Do you have any regrets about this arrangement? I have considered doing something like that, as it's really the only way I could justify buying something in my area. I always end up deciding renting wins out for me.

[Joeko]

HCOL:
1,500 - 1 bdrm apt
50- utilities
Free gym in complex

[bacchi]

MCOL

$100 PITI after (tenant rent - maintenance) for a duplex
$35 electricity
$20 water
$20 gas

= $175/month

[use2betrix]

We currently live in a 1 bed 1 bath with detached 1 car garage.. Has a pool, gym with treadmills, dog park, etc. We pay about $1350/mo plus expenses.

Next week we’re moving into a 2 bed 2 bath with attached 1 car garage, will have all the same amenities as current apartment. Is nice with stainless appliances, washer dryer, etc. It will be $1550/mo plus expenses.

My employer pays me a per diem of approximately $4200 tax free which is meant to cover living expenses.. Basically it covers my rent and then I have around $2500 left over. I haven’t worked I job that I didn’t get paid per diem in over 7 years.

[Abe]

$4400 for a 2 bedroom, this will drop to $3400 for a 3 bedroom next year. Southern California! Everything else we keep under check and this is well within our budget. Once we retire and kids are in college, we will immediately downsize.

[friedmmj]

Mortgage, Taxes and Insurance total $2067/month for a 4 bedroom 2600 SF house.  Approx $1000 of that is property tax (NJ!)

[JLee]

We currently live in a 1 bed 1 bath with detached 1 car garage.. Has a pool, gym with treadmills, dog park, etc. We pay about $1350/mo plus expenses.

Next week we’re moving into a 2 bed 2 bath with attached 1 car garage, will have all the same amenities as current apartment. Is nice with stainless appliances, washer dryer, etc. It will be $1550/mo plus expenses.

My employer pays me a per diem of approximately $4200 tax free which is meant to cover living expenses.. Basically it covers my rent and then I have around $2500 left over. I haven’t worked I job that I didn’t get paid per diem in over 7 years.

Holy crap, that's awesome.

[use2betrix]

We currently live in a 1 bed 1 bath with detached 1 car garage.. Has a pool, gym with treadmills, dog park, etc. We pay about $1350/mo plus expenses.

Next week we’re moving into a 2 bed 2 bath with attached 1 car garage, will have all the same amenities as current apartment. Is nice with stainless appliances, washer dryer, etc. It will be $1550/mo plus expenses.

My employer pays me a per diem of approximately $4200 tax free which is meant to cover living expenses.. Basically it covers my rent and then I have around $2500 left over. I haven’t worked I job that I didn’t get paid per diem in over 7 years.

Holy crap, that's awesome.

Yes it is, indeed it comes with downsides. It’s because I’m a “contract” worker. I travel all over the country and work construction jobs that usually last 6 months to a couple years. We have lived in around 8 states and well over a dozen cities, and probably moved 15+ times, over the last 8 years. Nature of the beast, they typically compensate me well. The good thing is that between contract positions it sets me up perfectly for long sabbaticals.

[Dicey]

Thanks to @BicycleB for pointing out this thread. I've always lived in a HCOLA, but I did figure out a few frugal hacks along the path to FIRE.

Now that we are FI & FIRE, we are living in a total clown house, because DH's mom has ALZ and lives with us. We each sold our modest two-story-no-downstairs-bedroom houses and found this the best fit for our current needs. We paid cash, about $930k and it's now worth about $1.4M. Our property taxes are nearly $12k per year  (at least a third more than the other two houses combined) and the utilities are about $300-$350/month, because we keep the heat at 67 day and night. Otherwise, his mom turns up in a zipped up overcoat with a hat on. Well, she still does that anyway sometimes, but at least we know she's not in any danger of actually freezing.

I'll post more about our costs and my frugal hacks from my single days, as time allows. 

And, because it's fun to do, I'll ping @bluecollarmusician, because he has some great housing hack stories.

[Tempname23]

We own our home bought 24 years ago for $82,000. We pay about $1,000 a year for property taxes and $1,200 a year for insurance. Our water, sewer and garbage runs about $90 a month or $1,100 a year.
Water, sewer and garbage is added because we don't have a choice, must pay it if in the city.

 That totals $275 per month.

[Sailor Sam]

I have a basement. It's $300/month when I'm deployed, and $1,000 when I'm in residence. Last year was $6,000 in rent.