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I am trying to get a better understanding of how much utility bills will cost me when I purchase a house in Fair Lawn, Bergen County. I understand that it varies between usage and different type of appliances.
General information: The house is a small cape with 2 rooms and an attic with central air and central heating. I am not sure how updated the electrical, appliances, etc.
What are your average monthly utility bill? What are the prices for water, garbage disposal fees, etc?
This is tough to answer. Utility bills are based on too many factors like:
what temperature do you keep your thermostat at
is the home in the shade or does it get a lot of sunlight
are you home all day or just evenings/nights
what type of heating - gas, electric, oil
how many people living in the house
what types of appliances are you using, and how often
FWIW, my wife and I live in a 3BR house (4 floors including finished attic and basement). Over the summer we have averaged around $75 in electric + gas combined. We rarely needed the central AC this summer. This will be our first winter in the house so I don't have any numbers that include heating costs. Water is around $25-30/month.
i asked my mother this because im moving into her community soon. she said that it costs between 200-250 a month for gas and electric. its a 3 br/3.5 bath house, about 3000 square feet.
she also gave me a long diatribe about how it depends on usage. is that really necessary? isnt everyone already aware that it will vary depending on usage? i just want a range so i have a general idea.
Last edited by CaptainNJ; 09-29-2009 at 01:46 PM..
Best way to get an understanding is to ask your realtor to ask the listing agent to get you copies of the utility bills from the seller. Make sure to ask for July or August and January or February, this will give you your worst case scenarios. When looking at those numbers take into account how many live there now vs. how many people will be living there if you were to purchase it. Of course this suggestion is useless if the home is bank owned but if it is a regular sale the seller should not have a problem with providing you copies of the bills.
People here can give you an estimate of how much they spend but there is no way of knowing how energy efficient (or not) your new house is.
A couple of people gave me quotes of $350/month for Electricity and Gas. I just thought that was a bit high. I understand it varies by usage but a rough estimate or a general idea would be nice for me to understand what I should be expecting.
Thank you guys for taking the time to answer my question.
A couple of people gave me quotes of $350/month for Electricity and Gas. I just thought that was a bit high. I understand it varies by usage but a rough estimate or a general idea would be nice for me to understand what I should be expecting.
Thank you guys for taking the time to answer my question.
It's not just usage, it's size of your home too. It takes a lot more to aircondition a 3000 sq. ft home than it would a 1800 sq foot home, hence higher electric bills.
to state the obvious.....besides the size, how efficient the house will impact the cost greatly. case in point: i was renting the 2nd floor of a 2 family home back in 1990, and my heating bill for 1 month was over $250/mo. we're talking about 700 sq feet nearly 20 years ago. there's seriously no way to predict this.
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