Cost of utilities in Austin (Lost Creek, West Lake Hills: condos, mortgage, how much)

[LLLegalien]

Hi there -

My husband and I are moving to the Westlake area of Austin. We really need help in determining our potential costs in order to figure out what type of home we can afford. We know the cost of property taxes.

If living in a 2800 sq ft house, how much would we pay for the following in one year:
- electricity
- gas
- garbage
- satellite TV
- anything else hit you monthly?
- anything else I'm forgetting?

Thank you very much for your help with this. Your answers will guide our home purchase.

[llkltk]

electricity summer months - over 200
- gas winter over 200
- garbage ?
- satellite TV cable/internet 135
- anything else hit you monthly? phone 65
- anything else I'm forgetting?

What is your price range for housing? Westlake is very expensive.

[LLLegalien]

We have seen a couple places in the area that are in the 425-450K range. We have lived in a couple other cities and have had bizarre surprises in terms of unexpected monthly expenses once we moved there.
We are from Ohio originally and it seems any other place we go to charges for utilities, garbage, water etc very differently. Knowing that the property taxes are very high, we are trying to be sure that we set ourselves up properly ahead of time to be sure this is the right move.

Thanks to everyone for the help!

[atxcio]

Westlake is not as terribly expensive as everyone says. There are certainly lots of 1m+ houses, but there are also $350K ones and condos. The combo of the high appraisals and taxes does make living in a $450K house more like living in a $600K house in other states. If property taxes are in your mortgage payment, for $425K house you may be looking at $800-$900 of your payment going to taxes. If you are not putting all that in escrow, you'll just pay a big tax bill (2.5% of your home value, typically) in Dec/Jan of each year.

As for utilities... it varies from area to area within Westlake. Which area are you looking in? The actual city of West Lake Hills is small but the area includes places like Davenport, Lost Creek, Rob Roy, Woods of Westlake, Barton Creek, etc. Here is how it breaks down for me:

* Electricity (City of Austin Util) - figure $300-$350 per month for a 3000 sq ft house during the hottest summer months (usually 3 mos), down to $80 during the winter when the a/c isn't running

* Gas - $25 - $80 per month (usually on the lower end, just 1 month or so in winter it might be $80)

* Water (varies by city / mud) - $25 - $70 (during the big lawn watering months)

* Garbage (varies again by city / mud) - $30 or so every 3 months for us.

* Satellite I don't know. But standard cable/internet/digital phone combo for us is $118.