本帖最後由 多多綠茶 於 15-7-18 00:05 編輯
bee_happy 發表於 15-7-17 14:27 
回覆 多多綠茶 的帖子
I've stayed in Austin for a week long long time ago, and I liked the peaceful ...
Oh, Austin actually has a bit cooler and nicer weather than Houston, cuz of the breeze from the lakes, rivers, and hillsides. Houston is worse.
Well, single family houses in TX are all McMansion like and all on average 1-ace lot size. It's the annual property tax on the county appraised value that you have to pay hurts your pocket.
Let's say you bought a $450K USD 2,500 sq ft house on 1-acre lot which doesn't seem a lot to us in terms of HKD, and the County Appraisal District appraised your estimated house value as $400K, then you are subject to pay between 2.6 to 3.5%(depends on the tax rate of the area you live in TX). By using the lowest tax rate of 2.6%, you would have to pay $10K USD EACH YEAR on property tax.
Besides the property tax, there are a few house-related expenses:
1. Full coverage home insurance (Estimate $1500~$1800 a year)
2. HOA (Gated community $50~$80/m, non gated community $20~$30/m)
3. Trash service ($15~$20/m)
4. Water and sewage service ($100~$150/m, high because you have a big lawn to water in the summer)
5. Electricity service ($70~90/m spring and fall, $120~200/m summer and winter)
6. Maintenance (Roof, fence, A/C, Water Heater...etc, estimate budget $600~$800/year)
7. Lawn service (if you don't want to mow your own lawn, $20/week)
So usually you don't just look at the price of a house, but its expenses. With the above example, besides the monthly mortgage payment, you will need almost $1400/m on the housing expenses, and I'm talking about when there isn't any unexpected repairs like roof leak or fence down when a Hurricane hits every few year.
Then you add up your remaining household expenses like cable TV ($50~80/m), Phone/Cell Phone ($60~80/m), Internet ($60~80/m), Car Payment ($200~300/m per car), Auto Insurance ($120~150/m for two cars), Gas ($120/m per car), Medical Insurance (depends on your job), Grocery ($500/m).....etc.
Roughly $4200~$4400/m USD for basic living expenses with a home ownership.
And, I didn't include any entertainment expenses such as dining out on weekends, a coffee at Starbucks.
AND, I am basing the example as a DINK family. Having kids will be another different story, please add another $600~1000/m USD for this category. 
I never mind the rain from the sky, as long as I have the sun in your eyes~
發表於 
返回列表
