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IMO, no. Buy a house you don’t have to spend dollars on up front to be happy in. DH and I have talked about this very thing. We spent big dollars over time on our last house. It was not a good investment. The Great Recession happened and our house’s market value shrank every year for several years.
There is no way we recouped what we spent on that house in the 26 years we lived there.
My advice is to not start off in a new house by incurring costs you don’t have to incur. Either live with electric or find another house. You do not know the future. But you will have to spend money on maintenance and upkeep. Better to not spend money you don’t have to spend.
This is my opinion. Other opinions may differ.
We have spent big dollars over time on our house too, but the investment value was certainly secondary. It's 48 years old, and we have updated it over the years to more modern tastes, including our tastes. We renovated and remodeled to match our tastes, not the market. We're still living here, and haven't made a mortgage payment in 12 years. We had some plumbing work done last week, and the plumber commented that our home has amenities he normally doesn't see anywhere but high end custom homes. It's only a 1740 square foot ranch style but, for two old retired people, it's what we need.
People lose sight of the fact that when it comes to housing, you swap money for lifestyle.
So if we were to buy this house and stick with all electric, should we expect our electricity bill to be crazy high? If we get far enough in the home-buying process, we can ask for average utility bills from the seller, but if anyone has experience with this...??? House is in the Indianapolis area, so 4 definite seasons needing climate control. Plus a heated in-ground swimming pool if we decide to go that route.
Ask the current homeowners about their monthly bills. We can’t possibly give you good info. Or, talk to another all electric homeowner.
It is up to you, the buyer, to do due diligence.
You could call the local gas company to find out the costs of converting a home to gas as well.
This is on you. You have to do the research for the information pertinent to your area.
House we have our eye on to purchase is all electric (home heating, for instance, is a heat pump). Neighboring "sold" houses have gas to the house, so I would imagine converting this one to gas would be a possibility (we would need to find out for sure, obvs).
Is it worth the time, trouble and expense to switch to gas? Anything we need to consider? I'm a total noob when it comes to these things. I just know I like to cook on a gas range and have never had anything other than gas (forced air) for home heating. Our clothes dryer is gas, but we'll probably be replacing it anyway, so it doesn't matter much (unless electricity costs makes a gas dryer a better $$ option).
The expense of piping for gas will be trivial compared to the price of a new range, dryer, water heater and furnace. If you are staying in SoCal, the heat pump is the way to go for HVAC. Gas only wins for heating if your temps often drop below freezing.
You would start to get payback on the water heater right away, and over 10 years that part of the project would pay for itself. Typically about a third of a residential electric bill goes to heating water. You might consider demand water heaters, which allow unlimited hot water. That may not be a cost saver, particularly if you have teenage daughters. Even a conventional gas water heater recovers faster than an electric.
The range is personal preference. We use a double oven electric range where the upper oven is pizza oven size. We love it because it preheats almost instantly and is handy for broiling, casseroles, etc. The lower oven is full sized and can be used either as a convection or conventional oven. All that oven space is very handy when cooking a holiday feast. We can do a seven course meal without breaking a sweat.
Electric wins for ovens, gas wins for stove top cooking. Years ago I had a gas range with outer and inner flames on burners. You could turn it down until it was little more than a chafing dish, or turn it up and pop a cast iron pot of popcorn in three minutes. It also had a griddle in the middle. I loved that range, but not enough to motivate me to buy a new one. I priced a comparable range once, and decided to buy a car instead.
I don't know anything about gas dryers. I have never had one.
If you are concerned about losing electricity, natural gas is a great way to run a generator. However, in an earthquake zone gas is the first utility to go out. They shut it down because of the fire and explosion danger from leaks.
Once lived in townhouse development in MA. We were all electric so the heat pump auxiliary heat was electrical. The gas company ran gas lines in the neighborhood. Well it cost about $5K to replace the heat strip furnace with a gas furnace. Many folks did so but I did not. As my wife and I both worked it meant we left the house in the morning and did not return until the evening. With a programmable thermostat we just did not see the savings. For those home all day the savings worked out to about 3-4 years. With the gas lines there, running gas to a hot water heater and to a stove was not that much trouble but required the hot water heater and stove to be replaced with gas models. Each townhouse had a basement where the hot water heater and furnace were located so running a power vent to the outside was not a big issue. Heat pumps are not ideal for heating when outside temps go below freezing thus maybe not best suited for Indianapolis.
I prefer gas heat and gas stoves. As far as the hot water heater, I could care less.
Back to the OP. I would guesstimate the cost of you going to gas heat, gas water heater, gas stove to be in the $8K to $10K range including new hot water heater and new stove. Bottom line is if the house hits all the buttons for you, I would probably do it for the gas heat alone.
Most folks around here, are going "all electric" and installing solar panels. Lots of solar panels. In my 'hood, the average number of panels is about 60. (As told to me by the door-to-door solar panel sales rep, last week.)
I'm still old school, with gas & electric. I like diversity, in case one becomes unreliable.
My place was all electric with no air conditioning, and I was paying on the average about $400/month. Went to gas and A/C about 20 years ago. Broke even after 6 years. Ahead now between 30 and 40K, and we have A/C when it's needed.
It depends upon the type of house, and the location. For example, a ranch house would be relatively easy to convert over to gas baseboard hot water heat, because you can run the pipes in the basement. Or to gas forced air, since you can run the vents in the basement. But for a two story house, it could be a real pain.
As for the cost - in the Northeast, electricity is so expensive that no one would DREAM of converting a gas heat house to all electric. But in the Pacific northwest, I hear that electricity is very cheap, so it might work.
I live in a house that has gas and electric appliances and I still feel uneasy. I can always tell I’m near the cooktop or the fireplace because there’s always a faint gas smell. I wish I could return to an all electric house
Most folks around here, are going "all electric" and installing solar panels. Lots of solar panels. In my 'hood, the average number of panels is about 60. (As told to me by the door-to-door solar panel sales rep, last week.)
I'm still old school, with gas & electric. I like diversity, in case one becomes unreliable.
They're doing "Power walls" too....
Totally agree, I was going to post the same thing! I'd look into doing solar. The OP can also look into piping gas for the stove and whatever else they like to use that needs gas. The gas company may have a zero interest program to convert. That's what we did in 1993 when we bought an all electric house, converted it to gas. We then added central air.
Quote:
Originally Posted by K'ledgeBldr
Perhaps you should look at it with a different perspective-
Location, location, location?
To include, schools, shopping, work travel (if any right now- know what I mean?), etc.
Bells, and whistles?
The bones? Good flow, number of rooms, etc.?
If there are checks in all of those boxes- does it really matter if it’s all electric?
Then again, the few subdivisions that I know of here in the ATL that are “all electric” don’t have gas available. So if any of those H/O’s wanted gas- propane would be their only option. I for one would not like being in an all electric house here- an ice storm (that happen somewhat infrequently) knocks out power, you have nothing! With gas- I can cook, shower, wash, I can even have heat in the fireplace- or rig a space heater. I can stay in-place; not so much with all electric.
As you say, if everything else about the house is great, I surely would go for it. I would want to see electric bills to know what I'm getting into while I'm converting to gas and/or solar.
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Even a conventional gas water heater recovers faster than an electric. 
