My husband and I are toying with the idea of moving from an apartment to a house. We currently live in a place where our rent includes utilities, but a houses would not have the same deal, so we are trying to make an educated guess on how much to budget. I know that utilities depend on the area, but I figure I can get an average from the responses. We would be renting a 3 bedroom home!
Thanks! My husband came home yesterday and has decided he wants to stay where we are until we have to PCS to another duty station,but the advice will be good for the future!
Better idea for you. Find a "nice" house representing what you would like to buy. Call the agent. Go and look at it and ask to see a year's worth or utility bills. THAT will give you a pretty good idea for where you live and the house that's comparable to what you'll buy. BTW, you can do this for ANY house you look at.
The sq ft and age of the home make all the differance. a 2,000 sq foot home built in 2008 will be way more airtight and cheaper to heat than a 2,000 sq ft house built in 1980. Go on the electric company website for the area and look at cost per kwh. I pay almost 9c per kwh and have a 1500 sqft house built in the 1980s. My electricity runs between 150 to 300 a mo. My water is between 65 to 80. We don't have gas.
It doesn't go by bedrooms, it goes by square footage, insulation factors, windows and doors and the rate for gas and electric.
Our house is 2,100 sq ft, well insulated, new windows and doors. We spend 180 on gas an electric a month. 45 quarterly on water, that is with a pool. Sewer is 32 a month. I think the rest of the bills you would have with an apartment.
Call the Utility company and see if they will give you an average. That would give you the best result. :)
there are sooo many factors to this I can't give you a number.
For electricity, if the home has:
good insulation
newer windows
insulation in the attic
you might be able to save money. As newer items are usually energy efficient.
Gas, water?
Toilets use a lot of water. Dishwashers, washing machines...gas electric? makes a huge difference. Refrigerators that don't have a good seal on them waste a lot of electricity. Older refrigerators and stoves use a lot of electricity as well...
Go to the landlord you are considering renting from and ask about the utilities. Many of them will release them.
We have saved quite a bit by going with Stream Energy. I believe that is also available in GA. Here is the website. Compare the rates to other suppliers in your area. They have several plans to choose from.
http://www.streamenergy.net/wp/
No idea for GA, but Seattle is on the upper end of most areas. Whenever these types of Q's come up... I just groan. I wanna move where y'all live!!!
$400 a month for oil
$400-$800 a month for water
$140-350 every other month for electricity
$50 a month for garbage
(Our mortgage is actually less than the lease we had on Student Family Housing... but when you add in the taxes & insurance, it's almost a grand more... and when you add in the increase in utilities it's well over 2k more per month).
$700 a month in property taxes
$100 a month in insurance
This is for a 1000sqft 100 year old but well insulated house. ((My parents live somewhat outside of the city limits, in a MUCH larger house, and their utilities are less than half of what we pay in the city. We bought in the city on purpose, for resale value, but we DO pay quite a lot to be here!)).
here near Ft Gordon.
We do around 100$ a month on electric, 100 on gas , 40 on water/ sewer.
4 bedroom home.
This is winter months averages including christmas lights.
You can call the utility company and ask them for the average of the house you pick. We did this before choosing our current home. My 1350 sq ft townhouse in MD cost $250 for electric/ water & sewer where as my 2400 sq ft house in VA cost $250 for electric/ water & sewer/ gas/ trash & garbage
A house being ofered for rent will have 12 months of utility bills for you to review
Once you have your eye on a place, you call ask the utility company for the past year's usage and they will usually give it.
For a ballpark figure, I have a three bedroom house and my utilities (gas and electric together) are between $150 and $300 per month, depending on the weather. Mild weather it runs closer to $150, cold or hot weather I have to turn on the heat or AC and it gets expensive! Water is billed every three months here, and my water bill has been between $150 and $250 each quarter.
You may also be able to get averages for a property, depending on the utility.
If someone called about our house, it would skew their perception of the area. We're about 60-70% solar. Our biggest bill right now is water/sewer.
My home is 1200 sq feet. We moved here, from an apartment. (700 sq feet.) Out utilities went down dramatically, except for water. Out water bill costs us about $25 more a month. However, gas and electricity went WAY down. Our apartment wasn't well insulated. You could feel the draft walking in front of the door. Having good insulation really helps.Out house was built in the 70's, but it has been re-insulated since.
If the house is somewhat updated with energy efficient appliances, then you will likely have reasonable utilities. An old, drafty house will be pricey.
We have a 3 bedroom "energy efficient" home, but live in NY so it's probably not a good comparison for you.
Gas/Electric: $100 per month in the summer; $200 in the winter
Water/Sewer: $50 each quarter
Waste Management: $30 per month, but we get billed quarterly
Call and request 12 mo worth of bills and then ask the landlord if any changes have been made including new windows, doors, insulation. Check on other things like cost of garbage removal, who is responsible for snow removal, lawn mowing as those things add cost on too.
I live in a 3 bedroom townhouse, a little under 2k square feet..
- We keep our air at 76 around the clock. We pay about 190-215 for electric.
- our water (4 people in our house) is about 75 per month..
- Directv 75 per month...
- comcast for internet 75 per month..
We dropped our home phone...
My house is 1800sft and our electril bill (we are with Stream) is usually between 150-300$. Our water is about $50, we don't have gas, just electric.
Like others have suggested, you need to call the utility company to find out what the average is. It can really vary from town to town, our electricity bill really went up after moving and it was because the town we bought our home in had a much higher rate.
That's really going to depend on a lot of factors. The utilities for my 3 bedroom house for a family of 3 run anywhere from $125 per month to $230 per month depending on the season and what the current rates are. Our most expensive bills are usually from January and February. I can look up our neighbors utilities online too by their address and the elderly man across the street, living in a 3 bedroom home, usually doesn't ever have a bill over $140 while another family of 3, also living in a 3 bedroom home, has bills that are regularly $350 - $400 per month.
FYI - our utilities consist of electric and water charges - we have a septic tank so we don't pay sewer charges.
If there is a house you are interested in you should be able to contact your utility company and get an average of what the last 12 utility bills were and how much the most and least expensive bills were. This is what I did with another house before we bought our current house. The other house I checked was a much older home and commonly had bills that were $500 - $600 per month and while I'm not sure why they were so high, that was a dealbreaker.
