Cost of Utilities in Syracuse area (New York, York: houses, buy, tenant)

[purplelabrador]

How high are your utility bills in central New York? I know it will vary widely based on the size and age of the house and other factors. I am just looking for a range. I don't want an unpleasant surprise coming from California, where the main driver of utility bills is air conditioning in June - September. Plus, our houses are so overpriced that mine is very small. Still, my bills average about $100/month over the course of the year here.

Thanks!

[bellafinzi]

For my home in CNY utility bills are about $250 per month.

[CBaillo]

Depends. If you're all propane (heat, stove, hot water), the cost of propane is pretty high (mostly from initial cost of fillup and setup). Our house is setup that way and we have 2 x 100 gallon tanks outside, that we were initially billed for the total propane in both..and that came up to 480.00, but i was able to split that up and pay it monthly. Now the propane company tells me that the previous tenant used up 600 gallons yearly on average, but according to our landlord, she kept the inside of her house at 85 degrees year round (she was weird).

We like it a lot cooler than that, so chances are we will use a LOT less than her, so it shouldnt be such a big monthly payment once we pay off the initial fillup. A lot of houses here also have a backup source of heat like a wood burning stove, too, and keep wood piles to heat the house with, or you can buy wood pellets, and if you're lucky enough to have that you'd save even MORE money on heating costs.

The power is a lot cheaper here than CA from what I can tell. I have Time Warner cable, and as a bundle package, they handle my broadband, cable, and phone service, and that costs about 128.00/mo (free hd). Gasoline is a lot cheaper here also, compared to CA. Don't know about water, because landlord covers that.

and depending on where in CA you're from, the summer can be up for interpretation. To me, coming from Simi Valley, and the greater LA /Valley area, the summers here are nothing. Sure it gets hot here, and climbs up to 90's AND it IS humid compared to where I came from, but there are breaks in between. It seems its never crazy hot for long...a thundershower will come along and cool things down for a few days, and then the temp will go up again, rinse and repeat. I'll take this weather, where i get a break from heat every now and then, even if its humid, over 250+ days of 90-100 degree heat that i hated so much in CA, there never seemed to be a break. Summer bled into spring, and back into summer. One Christmas was 90!!

But my point is, our house has good insulation and stays cool, really long, so on hot days we only really just run a fan, so theres no need to run central air all day long to maintain a temp. and when it gets cool at night, we just open the windows to cool the house. Sure sometimes we break out the window units, but thats rare.

[dianalb67]

Living on Onondaga Hill we don't need AC. We throw open the windows at night to enjoy the cool breeze and rely on our shade trees to keep the house cool by day. Our home is well insulated which keeps our heating costs down. We heat our 2,000 sq ft house for about $1,000 a year, give or take, depending on the severity of the temperatures. Our winters seem to be getting milder. If it gets very cold (below zero) we fire up the Jotel stove, more for the ambiance really. Nothing in the world like looking out at the snow falling, sitting by a warm fire with a cup of Joe and a good book after a day of skiing! Life is good!