$5K a year in maintenance sounds right, in fact low to me. Granted we have an old (1927) house. This year I needed to replace all the basement lighting, an easy $1200 with hardware and labor, plus needed about $700 on other cranky electricals; plus the upstairs bathroom (not large), which needs to be totally redone looks to cost us at least $17K. I'm putting off painting the outside, needs done every three or four years, and this house is mostly brick, $5K, and replacing two large storms and screens on the back porch, and easy $1K, till next year. The roof is $1-2K every few years and probably will have to be completely replaced -- it's a tile roof near the end of its lifespan. When we moved in we finished the basement, that was about $70K, you can count that as part of the cost of the house if you like. Over the last years we've had to replace the washer, dryer, dishwasher ($500 each), and kitchen floor (that was $2.5K); a few years ago we repainted the interior, that was at least $1.5K. A few years ago we had plumbing problems, two $1K water bills before a decent plumber discovered the leaky toiler, that was about $600 to replace. I am leaving lots out. Yard maintenance, which is cheap but adds up. Houses are expensive to run. So, maybe we are hellishly inefficient homeowners, but if we are so is every other homeowner I know.
--- joanna <123hop at comcast.net> wrote:
> Matt wrote:
>
> >
> >Joanna has made her bias against home ownership
> pretty clear but I
> >just want to chime in that $5K/year must be one
> hell of an inefficent
> >house.
> >
> I will confess that I live in a rent controlled
> apartment. I would say
> more, but I don't want to tempt the gods by going
> into the details.
> Let's just say that I'm a very happy renter.
>
> I also enjoy living in the sorts of places (Bay
> area, NYC) where housing
> prices are exorbitant. A reasonable house in the Bay
> Area in a
> reasonable neighborhood is about 700,000. Added to
> that I have no
> appetite whatsoever for risk; I am in horror of
> debt; and I would like
> to live my whole life without paying any interest to
> anyone for any
> reason. Have managed OK so far. All these factors
> combined makes home
> ownership a no op for me.
>
> But what makes me most bitter about home ownership
> in the last twenty
> years is that it has become the summum bonum of
> human life in the U.S.
> Forget justice, freedom, culture, solidarity, etc.
> If you have managed
> to get your 3bd/2ba mausoleum, you should feel set
> for the rest of your
> life, which you will happily spend decorating and
> redecorating. There is
> just something ignoble about that.
>
> Joanna
>
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