Does it cost over $1K to maintain a house at GTA

Sounds reasonable. I pay out about $800 a month for everything except repairs and maintenance. No mortgage. Repairs and maintenance can easily be $200 a month on an ongoing basis. They usually come irregularly in big amounts. Roof, furnace, AC, renovations are the big ones.

$1k per month is not enough to cover property taxes, utilities, and home insurance. Don't forget that from time to time, minor repairs here and there cost money. There is the need to consider a reserve fund for major repairs/replacements such as roof, furnace, hot water heater, AC, appliances on a 15-20 year cycle.

dunno Brampton property taxes, but in Markham a detached house property taxes, utilities, and home insurance $1K is not enough

On a good month with no extra surprise maintenance. 1K is enough.
Property Tax + Property Insurance + Gas + Hydro

Extra money should be putting aside for other surprise expenses like roof repair, furnace, A/C, appliances, etc.

$1000 may be reasonable as Brampton has higher property tax.

I live in Toronto and my monthly cost is closer to $650. Here is the breakdown.

$390 Property tax
$80 Home insurance
$70 Gas
$70 Electricity
$40 Water and garbage pick up

$1000? Obviously, it depends on the house.

Lots of people in big Toronto houses would be overjoyed if they only had to spend $1000 per month on house expenses.

sputnik99112 wrote: ↑ $1000 may be reasonable as Brampton has higher property tax.

I live in Toronto and my monthly cost is closer to $650. Here is the breakdown.

$390 Property tax
$80 Home insurance
$70 Gas
$70 Electricity
$40 Water and garbage pick up

That assumes $0 for maintenance.

BTW, I just got a new furnace after my last one died suddenly. Cost over $4000 and it’s only 60000 BTU, which is a typical size for a smallish house.

sputnik99112 wrote: ↑ $1000 may be reasonable as Brampton has higher property tax.

I live in Toronto and my monthly cost is closer to $650. Here is the breakdown.

$390 Property tax
$80 Home insurance
$70 Gas
$70 Electricity
$40 Water and garbage pick up

Our monthly is around the same (higher property tax though), but don't forget actual maintenance. There are ongoing things like mowing, minor repairs, paint, etc. Then you have major items that may be less frequent but still needs to be factored in. We had to replace a door last year, expect windows in the next few years, our furnace soon as well. We did the roof a few years back. Average it out and soon the monthly cost grows.

Maybe not quite $1k but a reasonable rough estimate.

Eric1010 wrote: ↑ My co-worker has recently purchased a detached house in Brampton. Since then he got his real estate license and is driving UberEats in the evening and on weekends. He told me he had to because apart from his $2K+ mortgage per month the running cost of a house is at least $1K with property tax, utility, home insurance etc.

I was surprised it's that expensive! No wonder many people rent out their basement. I was very against buying condo with management fee, but guess there's pros and cons for other housing options. Does it cost that much to maintain a townhouse as well?

You'd need to pay property tax on a condo as well. And comparing an 800 sq ft condo to a 2500+sq foot detached is apples and oranges.
The more home you own the more it's going to cost. Like everything in life.

That $1000 isn’t “maintaining” the house. That money is just paying some of the associated bills. Maintenance is things like repair and replacement of things that get worn and broken, like gutters and furnaces and appliances...

C

Here in Brampton, this is what I pay for my 2900 sq.ft. detached house
Mortgage ????
Property tax $540
Home insurance $90
Heating $97
Rental water heater $49
Hydro $100
Peel Water $80
Maintenance ????

You gotta pay to play.
It's all worth it to most who can afford it though, as it satisfies their egos and they keep p with the Joneses.
Everyone wants the best for their families, some people hang their hats higher than they can reach, but at the end of the day, they can say, look what I have.

Gk205191 wrote: ↑ Here in Brampton, this is what I pay for my 2900 sq.ft. detached house
Mortgage ????
Property tax $540
Home insurance $90
Heating $97
Rental water heater $49
Hydro $100
Peel Water $80
Maintenance ????

Basically $1000 a month NOT including mortgage or maintenance for your place. The 1% rule of thumb suggests that on average you may need 1% of your house value per year for maintenance. I don't know how much your house is worse, so I'll provide an arbitrary example: Using the rule of thumb for a $900000 house, you should have about $9000 per year for maintenance. That works out to $750 per month. Let's say that's too high because house price increases these days in the GTA may have outpaced increases in maintenance costs. So even if it were "just" $500 per month for maintenance for a $900000 house, that $500 per month or $6000 per year is something a lot of people here are not factoring in.

Note that these are an average, not the expected expenses every year. For example, if you need a new furnace, that might be $4000. If you need a new roof, that might be $5000. A power vented hot water tank with installation and tax might set you back as much as $1500. If you want to paint, that may be a few thousand $. This is on top of yard expenses and stuff like that.

If you are in a condo, you are forced to pay for this every year through your condo fees, along with a bit more for a reserve fund. For a house, you can get away with not paying for part of this for a long time, until you get into an emergency and all of a sudden you have to drop $10000 or whatever, because you have to replace your roof and furnace in the same year due to bad luck.

EugW wrote: ↑ Basically $1000 a month NOT including mortgage or maintenance for your place. The 1% rule of thumb suggests that on average you may need 1% of your house value per year for maintenance. I don't know how much your house is worse, so I'll provide an arbitrary example: Using the rule of thumb for a $900000 house, you should have about $9000 per year for maintenance. That works out to $750 per month. Let's say that's too high because house price increases these days in the GTA may have outpaced increases in maintenance costs. So even if it were "just" $500 per month for maintenance for a $900000 house, that $500 per month or $6000 per year is something a lot of people here are not factoring in.

Note that these are an average, not the expected expenses every year. For example, if you need a new furnace, that might be $4000. If you need a new roof, that might be $5000. A power vented hot water tank with installation and tax might set you back as much as $1500. If you want to paint, that may be a few thousand $. This is on top of yard expenses and stuff like that.

Agree with you..
Also for a newer house, things like roof change, furnance, Windows, you can postpone for few years.
Painting house yourself saves a lot.

soupmaster666 wrote: ↑ Just bought and old house. Monthly:

Mortgage $1380
Prop tax $290
Home insurance $100
Electric+water+sewer $200 estimated
Gas - Union Gas thought it would average to $98 but I'm barely behind and I won't use any gas in the summer so I expect it to drop.
Water heater rental $13

Your hot water heater is electric I guess?

On the slightly upper end in Toronto off Bayview in a 18 years old 4500 sf detached custom built home excluding finished basement, (water and garbage, gas and water tank rental, electricity, property tax and home insurance )runs about $20,000 for the whole year. Add home alarm, cable, internet and home phone =another $2400 per year. You probably don't even want to know what it cost to have done the roof, complete hvac and both garage doors in the past five years.

Eric1010 wrote: ↑ My co-worker has recently purchased a detached house in Brampton. Since then he got his real estate license and is driving UberEats in the evening and on weekends. He told me he had to because apart from his $2K+ mortgage per month the running cost of a house is at least $1K with property tax, utility, home insurance etc.

I was surprised it's that expensive! No wonder many people rent out their basement. I was very against buying condo with management fee, but guess there's pros and cons for other housing options. Does it cost that much to maintain a townhouse as well?

My monthly expenses for our detached home in Oshawa:

Mortgage: $732.26 bi-weekly ... $1464.52 a month
Property Tax: $370.86 a month
Property Insurance: $79.65 a month

Hydro Electricity: $59.48 (last invoice - to Dec 2017)
Enbridge Gas: $181.31 (last invoice - to Jan 2018)
Water (BILLED Quarterly): $119.70 (last invoice - to Dec 2017) ... about $40 a month

So the basics would cost close to $2200 a month.

Then you throw in:

Home Security Monitoring System: $43.50 (taxes in) a month
Gigabit Unlimited Internet + TV Package: $113 (taxes in) a month

Auto Insurance (two cars ... 2015 Lancer + 2017 CX-3 ... full coverage): $168.50 a month

Now you are running to $2520 a month just to stay afloat.

Throw in gas for both cars and food ... you're looking at about $3200 a month just to stay alive.

My property tax is a little over $400 per month (if averaged out). Utilities are about $350 on average (cheaper than this most months, but we have a heated pool, so gas bills for those 5 months are high). House insurance is $116/month. Maintenance issues vary. I think your friend is underestimating if they are including money put aside for maintenance (we put lots of money aside each month for future maintenance/repairs/renos).

In a few years my property taxes will be nearly double what I was paying when I first moved in, in 2007.

Piranhaguy wrote: ↑ On the slightly upper end in Toronto off Bayview in a 18 years old 4500 sf detached custom built home excluding finished basement, (water and garbage, gas and water tank rental, electricity, property tax and home insurance )runs about $20,000 for the whole year. Add home alarm, cable, internet and home phone =another $2400 per year. You probably don't even want to know what it cost to have done the roof, complete hvac and both garage doors in the past five years.

Yep. Since our house was built in two phases, it has two HVAC systems. In the last 10 years we have replaced both HVAC systems, a hot water tank/heater, the roof, front and back wood stairs, and a fence on one side of the yard, among other things. We also had two huge trees removed at great expense. I had gotten an arborist to check out a sick ash tree on our property. He said there wasn't much they could do about the ash, which was succumbing to emerald ash borer, but while he was there he said that the two poplars near the house had to be removed since they were safety hazards. Those poplars are not recommended near houses (mine and my neighbour's) as they are a risk for toppling in high winds. The city agreed the poplars should come down but I got to bear the entire expense for this, which was substantial as they were both 60-feet tall.

$1000 /m is reasonable. Property tax and utilities will easily run you $600/m. Dont forget insurance $100, some cities charge for garbage outside of your property tax, internet?, any rentals like HWT if applicable, repairs, etc.