NWR- Quesitons for LONG ISLAND HOME OWNERS-

Hi guys,

My DH & I are looking into buying a house in Long island, and we have never owend before, we currently rent an apartment in the city so we wanted to get an idea of what the average monthly bills would be when we own a house. Since I know the bills that come with owning a
3-4 bedroom house are very different than owning a small apartment.

For example, how much is:

Electric Bill
Heating Bill
Child care
Are prerty taxes paid monthly , quarterly, annually?

Im sure I am forgetting some expenses but Any advice on th elist above is greatly appreciated TIA.

my electric 180/month
oil 400/ every 2 months
child care: my sister pays 250 a week for 2 kids 6 hours a day 4 days a week
taxes are due january and may(i think its may)
100/month home owners ins
60/ every 3 months (i think) for water
we live in a 3 bedroom/ 2 kitchen cape style house in north babylon
hope this helps

We live in a 2bdrm 1 bath house in Lake Ronkonkoma and our electric averages abt $100 month, Gas averages abt $75 a month and water has been abt $70 every 3 months.

Our property taxes are in our morgtage payment every month. That way you don't have to come up with a large payment every 6 months. So is our home owners insurance.

As for childcare, can't help you there but I know it's expensive.

Good luck in your search!

Stay away from LI....too dam expensive LOL The taxes are insane and they keep going up a couple of hundred dollars a year. FH and I are considering moving to Jersey. I think Suffolk is cheaper to live then Nassau, but not by much. I'll ask FH when he gets home what our monthly bills basically are. I know are taxes are about $10,000 a year and it gets paid every 6 months I believe. It's costing us about $350 every month and a half to heat the house. Plus theres also bills like cell phones, car loans, car insurance, cable or satellite, home phone, water (which is the cheapest), groceries, LIRR (for people who work in the city) etc. Everything is just more expensive on LI. I wish they sold money trees FH also just paid $1,004 for the homeowners policy, I think that was for the year. I remember FH saying it costs like a little over $3,000 a month to keep the house running (basically all of our bills minus food) We live in an older house 1 bathroom 3 bedrooms dining room eik den living room and basement 2 car garage but we have a huge yard....nothing worth the taxes we pay. The mortgage is paid off which is what helps. I think with new houses they configure the taxes into your monthly payment. As for childcare all I can help with that is that when I was younger I was nanny and I made $450 a week for about 30 hours. HTH

I have to agree with Kara. It really depends on where you are, how big your house is, how well your house is insulated, sewers vs cesspools, oil vs. gas, etc. But to give you an idea, our taxes are included in our monthly mortgage payment. Our heat (gas) and electric bills are on a budget so we pay the same every month and usually, at the end of the year, we'll have an adjustment if we used more or less than what we paid for all year. Our LIPA is $147/month and Keyspan is like $40/month. Then we have the water bill that comes every quarter for about $30-40 (in the summer it's higher with the sprinklers) and the sewer bill is like $60 and that comes every 4 months or so.

Then there is insurance..if you are closer to the water you need more flood insurance. The STAR program will help you with your taxes also, but then if you live in an incorporated village, your taxes will be higher.

HTH

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate the info.

Its insane how expenseive itis to own a house!!

Yes it definately depends on what size house you have, and what town you live in cause taxes can be higher in other areas

We have a 4 bedroom cape style house, in massapequa, our taxes are 7000 a year.
Our electric is around 100 or so a month, our gas is around 100 a month. give or take a little.

I have a 4 bedroom/2 bath house with a full finished basement.

I pay:
220 oil/heating
Water is about 35 every 2 months
Gas is about 10-15 month
Electric is $125
Property taxes are escrowed in with my mortgage payment but they are a bit over 8000 per year.
I pay phone/cable/internet together and it is currently $130 per month. (Family cable with 2 DVR boxes, Optimum Voice and Optonline).
Childcare is big.
During the school year I pay 800/month for my 3 year old for full time care. I pay 9/day for my 5 year old for aftercare.
Last summer we hired a nanny for $250/week. This year we are doing day camp for 8 weeks - 2400 per child.
We also must pay when they have days off of school... sitters are usually about 40-60/day.

I have an extended high ranch

I pay about $150 in elec a month and $250 in gas during the winter (my heat, stove, and dryer are gas)

and its just FH and I. LIF had a thread about home expenses, and there were a lot of responses.

the killer is the taxes. I pay over $8K too

I live in a 3 bedroom 1.75 bath house in sayville. It is a split level. Our bills are as follows:

$70-$120 for electric depending on the month.
$65-$300 for gas depending on the month (our house has old windows and isn't properly insulated which we are working on--plus I have gas stove/oven and gas dryer.
$137--cablevision--tv, internet & phone
$7400--taxes we pay these ourselves in january & may. Every month we put money into ing so that we have the money when the bill comes---I couldnt' see giving the bank all the money upfront for taxes and insurance--I used some of that money to remodel the home.
$3200--includes home, car, ring insurance & we have an umbrella policy. This is with teh highest coverages on our car.
Plus our mortgage which is about $2800
$50-water every 3 months--suffolk water is very cheap even with an inground pool.
$135--cell phone bill
$30 a week for landscaping
$1000 a month in student loans
$220-car payment
plus food shopping, gas and we put some of our furntiure that we bought on no interest credit cards so we pay about $500 a month for those.

Owning a home on long island is very expensive but to me it is worth it. Good luck on your search