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My wife and I are looking at a home in Branchburg, public utilities. We rent a small 1br now so our costs are minimal and wanted to get a sense of what to expect. The homes we have been looking at are around 3300sqft, colonials. what should we expect in terms of water bills, heating/gas, and electric?
this home has a pool too as I'm sure would add costs
you should be able to call the utility companies to find out what the previous owner paid per month on those utilities
i did when i bought my condo
When I bought my house I called PSE&G and asked them what the previous homeowner was paying and they refused to tell me. Same deal with the water company. They said everyone's usage is different so another homeowner's usage is meaningless.
When I bought my house I called PSE&G and asked them what the previous homeowner was paying and they refused to tell me. Same deal with the water company. They said everyone's usage is different so another homeowner's usage is meaningless.
its true. I dont have kids yet, our water bill is peanuts, $60 a qtr, usually less? Add in two kids, and that surely goes up. Add in a sprinkler system, up again. A pool, up again.
Even given the same exact house and with the same number of people, the gas/electric usage can vary greatly depending on how much power that specific family uses on a daily basis. Do they have the thermostat set to 75 in the winters, or 55? (I know heat hedonists that do the former, and spartan masochists that do the latter). Is the family the kind that's hardly ever at home, with people always at work and school functions/extra curricular activities, always eating out instead of using the stove/oven at home, etc. etc.? Or is it a family of homebodies, with at least a couple of people always at home with multiple TVs, computers, appliances running and every single light on in the house?
The other thing to consider, besides the square footage of the house, is the quality of the insulation and the furnace, as well as what condition the windows are in.
The last place I lived was about 1,500 SF and the gas & electric bill in the winter could get up to $500+ for a household of 3. So, I think, that an estimate of $500 for 3,300 SF is probably conservative, even given good insulation, windows and new furnace.
RE: the water bill--
As a previous poster said...that bill is usually peanuts. For me, personally, that bill never was more than in the $150-ish range per quarter for a household of 3-4 (depending on which freeloading relatives I was allowing to live in my house at the time). When it was just me, it would be, like, $50-ish bucks per quarter. By the way, those figures also include the SEWER charge. However, that was in my last residence. NOW, I live in a town where the SEWER charge ALONE is a flat rate ~$150 per quarter, NOT including the separate water charge. Maybe someone here specifically from Branchburg can confirm how that town does there water/sewer charges. Maybe they can also confirm whether or not garbage & recycling is include in the property taxes or if you have to pay separate for that. Different towns do these things differently.
Other home maintenance incidentals (unless you & your wife plan on DIY-ing it) may include:
-Snow removal in the winters.
-Landscaping/leaf removal in the fall, spring, summer.
-Yearly servicing of the furnace/AC unit (although, I have a friend that says this is totally not necessary, but most others insist that it is completely necessary).
-Possibly a cleaning service (3,300 SF sounds like a lot of dusting, sweeping, scrubbing, wiping, polishing, vacuuming to me)
I just posted the above gas. We have a 2500 square foot home, with an inground pool. Kids have grown and moved out, so our utilities have come down some. Here is our electric:
1/24/2012JCP&L 73.6Electric
Last edited by NotWonderWoman; 03-24-2013 at 05:38 PM..
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