Looking to purchase a home can be a bit overwhelming, and you aren’t wrong. However, it is actually not as expensive as you would expect. And this simple cost may actually push you to take the step sooner than you had planned.

Before Purchase Comparison

Before you purchase and move into your first home, you are most likely living in an apartment building. This apartment building takes care of simple things like mowing the lawn, weeding the flowers, and sometimes taking care of the pool for costs that you pay in your monthly rent. However, with all of that combined, you could be paying $1,500 or more per month before utilities. One would imagine that if you are lying that much for a one-bedroom apartment, then owning a house must be double or more right? Wrong!

Pricing Difference

The apartment industry and rental average are based on other apartments and how much they charge for their units. This means that every complex is forcing others to raise their price. While the housing market works in a similar way, your payments are based on the price of your house, broken into a most likely 30-year payment plan. When looking at your monthly payments, you may actually be playing as little as 1,000-1,500 for essentially double or triple of what you had in your apartment. 

Additional Expenses

While the monthly payment is usually lower in a house, you must consider what your other expenses will be. While your utilities will most likely be up, due to having more space and uses. And you will also now need to begin managing your own lawn and services that were previously covered by your apartment complex. However, with all of that included, you will most likely be owning and home and paying it off for what may end up just being a couple of hundred dollars more than your apartment was. If you are looking at a house and want to know what to expect in regards to your utility bills, many utility bills are public or can be requested through this process to give yourself a better expectation of your potential future expenses.