New apartment, utility costs? (Portland, Beaverton: how much, tenants, landlord)

[skyline12]

My girlfriend and I will be moving into an apartment in the fall and are trying to budget out how much we can afford. The plan is to move into a small (430sq ft) 1BR in a new building in North Portland, but as I have been living on campus for 3 years and she's coming up from SoCal, we have no idea how much water/sewage/electricity will cost. The building pays for garbage but nothing else and I've heard sewage/water is outrageous in Portland, any estimates to what the monthly utilities will run us? Thanks in advance!

[Minervah]

Have you tried asking the apartment manager? He or she may know the answer from the other tenants' experiences. Or you can ask each utility company what the costs have been for former tenants.

[skyline12]

Thanks for the response. Unfortunately, the building is brand new so the management told me they have no idea what the utility costs will be. Do you think $100 a month for electricity/water/sewage is a safe bet for 2 people or should we budget for more? It's supposed to be an energy efficient building so I'm hoping electricity will be relatively cheap.

[Minervah]

I pay only for electricity which includes heat in my apartment of about 600 sq ft. The landlord pays for sewage and water. I couldn't begin to guess what your utilities might be but again I would call the utitity companies to see if they can give you an estimate.

[hamellr]

City of Portland and City of Beaverton both say that water is about $50/month per a person on average. My experience is that it's lower then that.

Electric can run from $0 to $400 depending on how insulated the building is, how much your neighbors keep their places cool/hot, and if you have those baseboard electric heaters or something else. $50 a month in Summer is usually a good round number for the average apartment. In the worst winters it can get to $250/month.

The good news is you can call PGE, give them the address, and they'll tell you what the electric use for that apartment was over the last year.

[Minervah]

Originally Posted by hamellr

City of Portland and City of Beaverton both say that water is about $50/month per a person on average. My experience is that it's lower then that.

Electric can run from $0 to $400 depending on how insulated the building is, how much your neighbors keep their places cool/hot, and if you have those baseboard electric heaters or something else. $50 a month in Summer is usually a good round number for the average apartment. In the worst winters it can get to $250/month.

The good news is you can call PGE, give them the address, and they'll tell you what the electric use for that apartment was over the last year.

The OP mentioned this is a new building and they would be the first tenants in the apartment. I think, though, that the utility company may be able to give him an idea based on what kind of square footage, heating device etc etc.

[hamellr]

I missed the new building part.

[skyline12]

If anyone's curious or in the same situation, I ended up moving in to a 700SF 1BR with W/S/G paid for, but my electricity bill during winter has been around $100/month, $70/month in fall, and $40-50/month in summer. I cook maybe a couple of times a week, so my gas bill has usually been the minimum, around $6-8.

[Nell Plotts]

This winter has been unusually chilly for a very long time. My apartment management has been commenting on the heating cost recently.

[davemess10]

That's interesting they bothered to route the apartment with gas, but are using electric heat?