Granted Sun City homes, association fees, and property taxes are very (very) low. But what is the general cost of utilities including electric, water, sewer and trash? I know this varies from house to house depending on upgraded windows, perhaps insulation but if you current single family home residents (not condo or townhouse) could give us out-of-owners some idea it would be helpful. We are looking hard at Sun City as the most economical community for our retirement in about 2 years. We currently live in a two story townhouse in the Twin Cities area of MN and our gas/electric runs about $200 a month year round (higher gas in winter, higher electric in summer). We don't pay sewer, water, trash. Can you fill in the blanks for me?
I imagine you pay your sewer, water, & trash through a HOA, taxes or rent. We have a 2 bedroom, 2 bath SF home and are here year 'round. After a bit of reviewing the past years bills I've come up with an average monthly figure for utilities for our home: Electric $120(over $250 in July-September due to A/C), Gas $25(water heater & furnace), water/sewer $35, and trash $15. Because our property taxes are less than $600 a year it more than offsets what we pay for utilities. We have no HOA fees other than the $20 per year to the Sun City Homeowners Association(SCHOA). The only other cost is the Rec Centers annual assessment of $462 which is well worth the cost if you take advantage of the fitness, sports or club facilities. Hope this helps. I'll be sitting out in the sunshine reading my book today. Hope you are bundled up with your -0 temps of late!!
Thanks Aggie, that paints a pretty good picture as far as living expenses. Something I have also wondered about. I think our costs, minus taxes are pretty similar here in Colorado, we just switch to Dec - March for the high heating costs and July for cooling. The biggest difference here and probably most places is property taxes, close to 4x what you stated and from what I have seen the lots are bigger in Sun City. We also don't have a rec center, but we do pay $350 HOA fees which includes common property maintenance and access to our pool in the neighborhood. Sun City is a heck of a deal, just wish I could move there sooner, still need about 3 more years to be able to make the move.
Very good. As a former realtor I would call the utility companies when a client was considering a house purchase. The companies could give me an average monthly figure for electric and gas. They would use 12 months for the average. This would smooth out the summer/winter differences in cost. Thanks again for taking the time on this. Still love to see what others have experienced. Sun City must be the best buy in the Valley!
Our electric provider offers the equal pay plan which would be around the $120 monthly figure. I prefer to have 7 months where the bill is under $60 and just pay the higher amounts over the summer. Another big factor here is the amazing health care available nearby and affordable insurance plans to further help with finances. In just a few months my monthly insurance payments will go from $500 on a private plan to $120 on a medicare advantage plan(both Blue Cross/Blue Shield). Can't wait!!
I am in the process of preparing my annual Monthly expenses. I average $150 for electric/gas per month. Higher gas in winter, higher electric in summer. My comfort is important to me so I do not skimp on temperature. Blue Cross/Blue Shield Advantage costs me $23/month for the middle plan. This year there is no copay for primary and $15 for specialist. No cost for Tier 1 medicine and $9/month for Tier 2. I compared several plans and this seemed to be the best. Last year I applied for a freeze on my property tax. Need to reapply every 3 years. BTW I live in a 1,600 sqft condo with 2 br & 2 b. HOA is 185/month which include grounds upkeep (I have grass) water, sewer, and painting every 10 years (that was done last month). More questions?
The figure I used for future BCBS Advantage plan includes having my medicare deduction paid directly to BCBS. I'm going to use the same plan that you have.
I did some calculations and my electric/gas bills average $95 per month (gas $379/year and electricity $706/year). That's nearly $50 less than I thought. I looked at each monthly bill that gave me those figures. Guess I can eat out more often now!
I'm probably not the right person to answer this but here's a overview of our utilities: We were on the 12 month average at APS and it was running us $229. We keep it warm in the summer and cool in the winter, but we have an unusual Sun City home with 3000 + square feet. To help offset it we did a solar lease last year and our solar rental is now under $180 a month and we produce enough offset to not see a bill from APS. Just made sense for the long haul, as costs will do nothing but increase. Our water bill is around $35 a month as we have removed almost everything that needs watering. You know what the rec fees are and aside from those the biggest expenses for us are Direct TV and the high speed internet and phone which come in at around $200 total (and obviously that can be much lower if we wanted or needed to). We too came from Minnesota and our monthly cost of living was way higher (maybe half again as much). We had two cars and here we have a car and two golf cars. Insurance is far less and gas is 25% of what we were paying when we were both working. All I all a great move.
I have Cox tv (minimum channels), land line, and internet. It cost me $81/month. Recently I was having problems with land line - no dial tone. Cox quickly fixed it when I complained. It still happens occasionally. Last week I bought a Tracfone and 3 months of service. It is just for emergencies when I am out and about and only 1 person has my number.
Good stuff, thank you. Our DirecTV and internet would also cost about that much here. Do I understand that you have no APS electric cost at all now? That your average of $229 goes away entirely and your only electric cost is under $180? Thank you again for your most helpful comments....all of you!
