Average cost for utilities in the East Bay (Oakland, Walnut Creek: homes, live in)

[benjh0329]

I will be moving to the East Bay from Charlotte. I was curious if someone could tell me the average cost for utilities (gas, electric, water, etc.) for a 2,000 sq. ft. two-story home on a 1/4 acre with a fair amount of grass to water? Thanks.

[mayorhaggar]

Depends if you are near the bay or if you are somewhere inland. If you're in Oakland you won't need AC in summer because it will rarely get over 70F, but you'll want some heat in winter. If you're somewhere like Walnut Creek you'll be cranking the AC all summer long because it will be around 90 to 105 a lot of the time, and you'll want more heat in winter.

[tanglenet]

Estimate $125 per month for gas and electric and $60 to $150 per month for water. We are with East Bay Mud for water and about 1/2 the fees are for sewer and seismic upgrades.

[westcoastbabe]

Hey read your post. How was your job search? Curious to know what you thought about Charlotte.

[Joe_Ryder]

It really depends on where you live in the East Bay. The Bay Area is famous for micro-climates. You can be sweating and getting a sunburn here while the guy a couple miles away is freezing his tail off in the fog.

If you do a zip code search on the various weather sites you can find the averages for the area of interest. For utility rates, you can go to Pacific Gas & Electric - Rates to determine what your approximate cost will be.

[tstieber]

Well, there are few places where you'll even see a 2000 sf home on a quarter acre. That's a LOT of land around here, and you'll usually see larger homes on lots of that size. Typically, lots of that size will be inland, in older suburbs, and it will be fairly hot in those areas. If you're going to have a fair amout of grass to water, then plan on hundreds of dollars JUST for your water bill in the summer. It never rains during the hottest months, so you'll be watering basically every one to two days. Plus your electric and gas for A/C in summer and heat in winter.