Utilities? (Denver, Colorado Springs, Grand Junction: vehicle registration, insurance, new home)

[milfeld]

What are utilities prices like? Winter? Summer? We pay $250/month for electric (average annual billing) and $50/mo for gas (avg.) in Fort Worth, Texas.

TIA,
Sandy

[Mike from back east]

All utilities in Colorado Springs and close-in areas are provided by one firm, Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU), see: Colorado Springs Utilities You should be able to get rate data there. Their monthly bills for us include water, sewer, natural gas and electric. So far, I'm happy with them.

We've a 3800 sq ft home, ranch style, fully finished basement. This is a new home as of Nov 2005. Both levels have 9-foot ceilings, two rooms are even higher. We have two heating systems, two gas fireplaces, gas water heater, gas cooktop, two electric ovens, one A/C system. We run 3 outside lights each night. We heat and cool at 75 degrees. There are two occupants, we shower each day. The downstairs heating system hardly came on during the winter, it was set at 68 degrees and we only turned it up when we were busy down there. The lawn has a sprinkler system and it runs for two hours a day since May. During December 2005, we had a few days of -15 degrees.

Our bills so far have been: Dec 2005 $241; Jan 2006 $274; Feb $262; Mar $237; Apr $177; May $224; Jun $199, Jul $225, Aug $162, Sep $157, Oct $181, Nov $198, and Dec 2006 $236.

These bills are on a par with what we paid back in Fairfax County, VA for a 2000 sq ft home that was built in 1974 - an all electric home. The home we're in was built by Keller Homes, one of the best local builders. They do a full "green" treatment of each home they build. I believe the industry name for what Keller does is called "Build Green Colorado," and is characterized by superior insulation, tight fitting seals, permanent epoxy on air ducts instead of duct tape that peels off after several years, water heaters that draw combustion air from the outside in a closed system, low-e twin-pane windows, and more.

For any home in Multiple Listing Service, the listing realtor should have a full year's worth of utility costs to show you, at least that's what we've always seen when we bought or sold homes. There is no charge or obligation if you ask them such questions, they are there to help. (I'm not a realtor, in any way, shape or form.)

CSU has had great success getting long-term contracts for natural gas (NG) that have minimized any rate increases here. Much of our NG comes from fairly local sources here in the Inter-Mountain West, mostly in CO and WY. The coal for our electric power plants here is also local WY coal, the costs for it aren't subject to the kind of fluctuations seen in the NG marketplace. Our water supply is Rocky Mountain snow-melt, best in the nation, always very cold out of the tap, even in summer, and tastes great.

To see the actual utility rates here, see: http://www.csu.org/customer/rates/rate_residential/1488.pdf (broken link)

To see how rates in Colorado Springs compare to other cities: Rate Comparison (http://www.csu.org/customer/rates/rate_residential/page3036.html - broken link)

Our rates are lower than most cities, i.e., $75/month cheaper than San Diego for the same amount of usage.....
s/Mike

[milfeld]

Incredible! Your bills are VERY low compared to ours. Our home is 1800 sq. feet, 9 ft. ceilings throughout, one gas fireplace, two bathrooms, and 2 teenagers. Our water, gas and electric are all separate. Electric averages $250. Water, $50/winter $70/summer. Gas is $60-$70 in the winter, $30 rest of the year. And then there's the trash/recycle. I'm amazed! And we are deregulated, so we chose the cheapest electric company.

[COflower]

FWIW - I live in a 1,600 sq ft house (just me) and work out of my home.

I am "Budget Billing" with CSU at $151 a month. That rate started in Sept. of last year.

At this point, with the cold winter (I am a wuss and keep the heat up to 72°F) and such, my utilities have leveled out to a point where my account balance owing is $65 with two more months to go for the revision on my budget pricing plan so I should see a positive amount going in for the next season when the reassess my account.

Last billing period:

Electric: $42.04 (average daily kWh usage = 14 kWh) and that amount has remained pretty steady over the years. Higher in the winter, less in the summer of course but never have gone over $50 that I recall.

Gas: $23.07 (average CCF per day = 1 CCF) In as recently as March-April billing it was 4 CCF which is considerably less than my Jan bill and per the graph on that April statement was closer to 6 CCF per day.

Water and wastewater combined: $39.49. They base your wastewater on your lowest water usage between December and February and in the winter months your wastewater bill can be higher than your actual water usage. It balances itself out in the summer if you own/rent a house though that requires irrigation for watering your lawn, garden and other plants.

Overall this bill was just shy of $100.

I do expect my electricity to spike this month because of the heat. I don't have AC (which is good for the bills but not good on the mind and the body, ha) but use fans and my portable evaporation cooler.

Of course, people with families will experience a lot higher bills for the same size house due to more laundering of clothes, more dishes, more bathing...you get the idea.

[wanttoretire]

As we contemplate where we will retire, the cost of utilities and property taxes need to be addressed for consideration. Grand Junction and Cedaredge and areas and other areas within 20 miles of each are our primary concerns.

We would like any input regarding what your January Gas and/or Propane bills were so that we may add that to our spreadsheet for highest expenses during the winter months.

Also, for a retired couple, owner occupied home what would the property taxes be in approximate figures with any deductions if we were new Colorado residents in the above mentioned areas?

Any input you may be able to provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time in advance.

[jazzlover]

Currently Colorado residential property is assessed at 7.96% of fair market value to get assessed value. Then the local mill levy is applied to that to get taxes. When all is said and done the effective tax rate on residential property is about 0.5% to 0.7% of fair market value. That is one of the cheapest rates in the US. Unfortunately, it is that low because Colorado's property tax system is constitutionally biased against commercial and industrial property owners. They pay over 3 times the rate of taxes per dollar of fair market value compared to residential property. At some point, Colorado is going to have address this huge inequity (probably by drastically raising the assessment rate on residential property) because, as it stands, residential property owners are not paying even close to the amount of taxes they and their property consume in government services. More information here:

Brochures

The only significant deduction for Colorado residential property taxes is the Senior Property Tax Exemption, but it requires the property owner to be over 65 years of age AND to have lived in the residence for which the exemption is being applied for TEN YEARS.

Utility costs are around the national average, though propane is getting quite expensive--well over $3.00/gallon now. Other expenses must also be considered. Food costs in Grand Junction/Delta are as high or higher than in Colorado's metro areas. Gasoline is up to 20 cents or more higher than in the metro areas. Diesel is nearing $4.40/gallon. Medical costs are about the same as Colorado metro areas, but some specialties are not available in rural Colorado--those may require traveling to Denver, Colorado Springs, or Salt Lake City. Retirees need to consider those potential costs. It used to be that the area's relatively lower home prices overcame those disadvantages, but increased housing costs (a bubble, in my opinion, that will probably break soon) have erased much of that advantage. If a retiree needs to supplement income by working, jobs (unless you are up to working in the gas fields) are sparse and pay poorly--especially in Delta County. The area used to be a great place for retirement, but the shine is rapidly fading from that apple.

[COflower]

FWIW, I had similar utilities in Grand Junction that I did in Denver. So you need to take into account the square footage of your residence and compare that with Denver.

As for Cedar Edge, I would contact their local chamber of commerce. They can give you a better idea of what you may expect there. It's pretty up there though so the trade off (if higher) may be worth it.

[Bob from down south]

Here are a couple data points for your consideration.

Colorado ranked #23 in the nation in combined federal and state tax burden in 2007. See this chart

The Tax Foundation - State and Local Tax Burdens Compared to Other U.S. States, 1970-2007

Local property tax mill rates can vary dramatically based on school district, for example. I've found that property taxes in some Colorado Springs rural areas are nearly double those of adjacent areas just due to differing school districts.

A lady at a rural Colorado propane dealership told me that a good rough estimate for annual propane usage (in gallons) is around half the square footage of the house. Keep in mind that propane is derived from oil...with prices now near $120 a barrel, $3.50 or more a gallon propane is not out of the realm of the possible next winter.

[wanttoretire]

Thank you all for your replies. They are most helpful. We have gone to Grand Junction at least 15 times over the past 10 years so we pretty much know that area and the surrounding areas such as Palisdades, Monument, Fruita, Clifton, Redlands, etc.

We haven't really seen Cedaredge yet however we have been to Crawford and even had dinner at Joe Crawford's restaurant.

We are going back in September or very early October and re-checking everything out. I think the best thing for us to do besides look around the towns, neighborhoods, stores, etc. is to also just ask residents, maybe in coffee shops or supermarkets as well as Realtors about their expenses, etc.

I'm not sure about brain picking in Colorado but we are also looking at a couple of areas in Idaho and trying to compare housing, monthly expenses and taxes at both locations to see what would be the better fit for both our personalities, recreation (fishing for the most part) and expenses with taxes as well as regular monthly household expenses. I know that Idaho natives seem to be extremely patient with our questions and even give us answers to those we hadn't thought about asking yet. I hope we can get similar interaction with Colorado natives. We have no reason to believe otherwise.

This is a difficult decision and we only want to move one more time for retirement so we are trying to find out everything we possibly can to make a well informed decision and then live with it. The margin for error is not very big for us.

Again, thanks for your input.

[Bob from down south]

My wife and I visited Idaho (Post Falls area) last September, as we were going through the same drill. We decided on Colorado Springs.

Look hard at taxes in Idaho. They have a pretty hefty income tax as well as high property taxes.

And don't forget vehicle registration and insurance rates in your analysis.