What to Expect to Spend Annually on Maintenance for Your New Home
6/10/2021
Budgeting for home maintenance costs can be a tricky task given how unique each home is. As much as we would like, our home’s components don’t last forever, but you can estimate your home’s annual maintenance costs to help make these sudden costs more manageable. Here are some general tips for estimating your home’s annual maintenance costs:
% of Home Value
A common method of determining a home’s maintenance costs is to take a percentage of your home’s value. This ranges from about 1-4% depending on factors such as:
1) Climate: Homes in wet and humid climates tend to accrue more maintenance costs
2) Home Age: Homes around 20-30+ years of age tend to need more maintenance
3) Materials: Lower life materials like wood siding and stucco tend to need more maintenance, whereas modern materials like fiber cement siding tend to last longer.
A good baseline estimate for many homeowners is to use 2% of your home’s value as your annual maintenance costs. From there, use the following three factors to help adjust this percentage to match your home:
1) Climate
- Humid and Wet: Add .5%
- Dry and Temperate: Subtract .5%
2) Home Age
- Add .1% for every 10 year of age
3) Materials
- Lower Life Materials: Add .5%
- Modern Materials: Subtract .5%
For example, a 35 year old home worth $300,000 in Minnetonka with wooden siding should expect to spend $9,900 on annual maintenance costs.
It’s important to understand that this estimation does not consider major home repairs that may come up, such as roofing or foundation repairs. It does however include run-of-the-mill upkeep items like lawn care, powerwashing, and snow removal.
Square Footage Rule
Another way to budget your annual home maintenance is to budget about $1 for every square foot of livable space in your home. This is also applicable to new home maintenance costs, and can be more accurate if your home value is volatile. So, a 2,500 square foot home would have an estimated budget of $2,500 annually.
This method can vary in accuracy based on regional cost of living, lot size and labor costs, but provides a baseline that can be tweaked to better fit your home’s characteristics.
Other Considerations
When buying a home or assessing your own, it’s important to factor in these maintenance costs to understand how its value can change. These estimates do not demand that you spend $9,900 on home maintenance, but rather set an expectation of what these numbers can be. Consider setting money not spent on maintenance aside for larger home repairs.
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