Purchasing House

I have have a family of 5, two boys and a girl. I am pretty consistent with $450 per month on food. To be safe, I just plan on $100 per person and I am good to go. As far as the other information you need, good for you to be so thorough, so many people just get excited about the opportunity of bigger and better and forget about the details. I wish I had specific information on the cost of living in that area but there are so many factors, I would hate to lead to down the wrong financial path. Your realtor should be able to provide that information for you though.

Good for you and good luck!

I listen to Dave Ramsey and did his Financial peace class, he says a good rule of thumb is 25% of your NET monthy income. The banks will still qualify you for way more than that for sure, it is still kind of crazy! I wouldn't worry too much about utilities, (mine average $300 per mo for water, gas and electric). Also it is a good idea to have at least 10% down, 20% is ideal. Also have a budget for everything! It's good you are paying attention, you are off to a good start! Good luck!

You can call the utility companies and get estimates from them. Water/sewer are with the water company that services the area. Gas/Electric is through PSC.

The best thing is to get with a Realtor and have them pull up some houses that fit your requirements for living and are also considerably less expensive than what you've been 'approved' to buy. From there you can get an idea of:

1. What neighborhoods are available
2. What the square footage, year built, etc is
That will give you the best starting point for getting a handle on taxes, insurance, utility rates,etc. In Lakewood, there are five different source of water and each has different rates. Denver has a single tax rate for homes, except Stapleton which is in a special taxation zone. One house may have had several insurance claims on it, the one next door may have none, the first will then have really high insurance rates. One house may have new windows, lowering energy rates....

In a nutshell, there is no easy way to figure out the 'extras' above the Principle and Interest (P+I) to get the Taxes and Insurance (T+I) to get a full PITI and then average utilities until you know the address. HTH! And happy hunting!!

Hi- congrats on your future new home! I cant answer your first question but I live in HR in a house thats about 1800 sf and our PG&E bill (gas and electric) runs anywhere from $60-$200/month. Basically when we arent using heat or a/c its on the low end and in the worst of the winter it is on the high end. For it to reach over $150 is RARE, but not unheard of. Trash is not included in HOAs. You can choose from 3 different providers, and ours is $75/quarter I think. Water is about $60 every 2 months. Yours might be more because you get an allotment depending on how many people live in your house. Taxes are about 8% of the cost of your home. So if your home is $250K, taxes would be around $2000/year. I dont know about insurance. We have it bundled with our car insurance and I dont know the breakdown exactly. My guess is about $500-$1000/year maybe?

I noticed when we were looking that we were approved for a much bigger loan than we felt we could comfortably afford. So I would work out what your monthly budget is, figure out how much mortgage you can afford on top of that, and then decide how much loan to take on. Basically what it seems like you are doing.

Hope this helps!