Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Texas > Dallas
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Closed Thread Start New Thread
 
Old 11-20-2013, 03:46 AM
 
5 posts, read 19,849 times
Reputation: 15

Advertisements

Considering move to Texas......just looking to get an idea on what homeowners insurance cost is...as well as car insurance....anything else you would like to add would be great as well (utilities, tagging a vehicle expense, hidden fees of living in Tx....)

just looking to see what kind of an average I can expect.....

Can someone tell me where/what town, size of home, estimated cost, and how much it runs a year?

Car Insurance: type of car, year, and how much?

I understand these rates do depend on your personal info....but just looking to see if the estimates that TX insurance is high...is really true or not....

I know everyone says the cost of living is so low in TX...but it seems like when I run the numbers of property taxes, insurance, utilities, etc...I cannot understand why all the hype of low cost of living.....

 
Old 11-20-2013, 05:51 AM
 
19,539 posts, read 17,795,737 times
Reputation: 17055
Quote:
Originally Posted by voncobra View Post
Considering move to Texas......just looking to get an idea on what homeowners insurance cost is...as well as car insurance....anything else you would like to add would be great as well (utilities, tagging a vehicle expense, hidden fees of living in Tx....)

just looking to see what kind of an average I can expect.....

Can someone tell me where/what town, size of home, estimated cost, and how much it runs a year?

Car Insurance: type of car, year, and how much?

I understand these rates do depend on your personal info....but just looking to see if the estimates that TX insurance is high...is really true or not....

I know everyone says the cost of living is so low in TX...but it seems like when I run the numbers of property taxes, insurance, utilities, etc...I cannot understand why all the hype of low cost of living.....
Depends upon which you are comparing Texas with. And people often get hung up a few things here that may be higher but lose track of the big savings factors here - taxes and real-estate.

Where are you coming from or comparing Texas with?
 
Old 11-20-2013, 06:36 AM
 
5 posts, read 19,849 times
Reputation: 15
coming from ohio & tennessee --

what do you mean taxes and real estate?
 
Old 11-20-2013, 06:48 AM
 
Location: DFW
40,930 posts, read 48,917,016 times
Reputation: 54916
Quote:
Originally Posted by voncobra View Post
what do you mean taxes and real estate?
It's a lot cheaper to live in Brady TX verses downtown Dallas. It's cheap compared to living in NYC, Chicago, San Francisco but can be expensive compared to Hooterville Kansas, BFE Kentucky.

Our schools are financed by property taxes which are high but we don't have a State Income tax.

Everything is relative. It all depends on your concept of cost of living and what you are willing to accept.
 
Old 11-20-2013, 07:10 AM
 
Location: Dallas, TX
2,825 posts, read 4,439,454 times
Reputation: 1830
Here is a little helpful tool. It's not perfect but should give you a round about feeling. It looks like most cities in Ohio and Tennessee seem to be right about the same or slightly cheaper than Dallas.

http://money.cnn.com/calculator/pf/cost-of-living/
 
Old 11-20-2013, 07:57 AM
 
19,539 posts, read 17,795,737 times
Reputation: 17055
Quote:
Originally Posted by bencronin04 View Post
Here is a little helpful tool. It's not perfect but should give you a round about feeling. It looks like most cities in Ohio and Tennessee seem to be right about the same or slightly cheaper than Dallas.

Cost of Living Calculator: Compare the Cost of Living in Two Cities - CNNMoney
Unless they've updated it recently that calculator does not account for tax differences. The state and local tax burden in Ohio is roughly 15% higher than Texas. Tenn. is lower than Texas.
 
Old 11-20-2013, 08:06 AM
 
440 posts, read 863,444 times
Reputation: 544
Might be worth telling us what your current house is in terms of size ,age, cost etc and also do you live in a city hub or bedroom community.....just for an example we came from the North east-we purchased and built a new home here that is double the size of our previous house and it was 20% cheaper than what we sold our old house for-it is also energy efficient so while we pay a/c for summer we don't have the same heating bill and for the first year here our utilities bills have worked out to be 40% cheaper because of the energy efficiency. Water bill/trash etc is about the same for us and insurance has actually worked out cheaper for us. Running the car is cheaper as gas prices are cheaper here We no longer pay for a monthly T-pass as we only live 4 miles from work -so we save close to $200 a month there . Property taxes are a little higher for us..but we came from a high p/t area...food prices are lower here for us and also there is no state income tax! One interesting thing I found relevant if you have middle /high school kids-the school district I cam from we had to pay a fee for each child and each sport per season they attended...so track was $150 per season ($300 per year) and then I had to pay for my other kids as well...the amount was capped for high school kids but could not be included with middle school kids so you ended up spending $600 a year if you had 2 or more kids in two different school levels to do school sports -I was pleasantly suprised to find this not the case in our new school district...and also no bus fees-although my kids are almost drivers now ..
 
Old 11-20-2013, 08:21 AM
 
Location: North Texas
24,561 posts, read 40,127,872 times
Reputation: 28547
My house is 1820 sq ft and was built in 1957. HVAC components range in age from 5 to 15 years old. New windows. Not nearly enough attic insulation. I have a gas furnace and gas water heater. My property is .25 acres.

My water bills in summer can get up to $100 but are usually under that due to Richardson's severe watering restrictions. I live alone, so there's only one person showering/using toilets/doing laundry and dishes.

I keep my thermostat at 80F in summer and 68F in winter. My electric bills can get up to $200 in summer and are usually around $80 in winter, with spring and fall being somewhere in between. My gas bill is usually 20-25 in summer and can get over 100 in winter due to the gas furnace.

My property taxes with a homestead exemption are about $4700 a year. I'm in the unfortunate position of paying Dallas County and Richardson City & ISD taxes, which together can be higher than surrounding areas.

My homeowners insurance is paid via an escrow account on my mortgage, so I don't actually know what the premium is since I refinanced. Pitiful, I know. I had a look at it when I was signing my closing docs and I don't recall it being any worse than average.

Subscription TV and internet is expensive. I have AT&T U-verse and I hate it, but my only other options are dishes or TWC. My U-verse bill is $130 a month...scandalous.

My car is 6 years old, paid for, and has about 51k miles on it. I have insurance through Geico and it's $54 a month for full coverage. That is far cheaper than State Farm, who charged nearly double that. Registrations and inspections are each under $100 a year. I think even together they're under $100.

Sales tax in my area is 8.25%. Gas prices are lower than the US average. I don't know what taxes are on alcohol and cigarettes since I no longer purchase either of those. A pack of cigarettes is 5-6 dollars. I don't know how much a six bottle pack of good beer is. Probably 8-10?

A lot of our exurbs are serviced by toll roads. I don't know what the exact tolls are; I seldom use toll roads but I have a toll tag that automatically tops itself up when I run out of money on it, so I don't pay much attention to how much tolls cost. If you lived in an area with a toll road you would definitely need to factor your daily tolls into your COL; they do add up. People here living in those areas can tell you how much the tolls are.
 
Old 11-20-2013, 08:40 AM
 
Location: DFW
40,930 posts, read 48,917,016 times
Reputation: 54916
If you are a single guy, many of our Texas women can be pretty expensive to maintain.

But that's probably true just about everywhere.
 
Old 11-20-2013, 08:42 AM
 
5 posts, read 19,849 times
Reputation: 15
Quote:
Originally Posted by sossie View Post
just for an example we came from the North east-we purchased and built a new home here that is double the size of our previous house and it was 20% cheaper than what we sold our old house for-
double the size -- really? did your previous home have a basement?

I only ask this because what I have been experiencing is most of the homes I see might have large square footage (a two story home) but no foundation...no basement....its much cheaper to build up then out/down - so are you really getting something comparable for cheaper....or are the builders getting more for less?

I just wonder if people realize they're not really getting the same "product" -so how can you compare and say you got "bigger" for "less"......?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Closed Thread


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Texas > Dallas
Similar Threads

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top