True cost of housing

I just love numbers and a new feature has been added to our MLS (multiple listing service) that provides more numbers. We can come up with some costs of owning a home that go beyond the monthly mortgage payments. We can also compare the true cost of several homes. Items like utility costs and the cost of driving to work are factored in.  Local Realtors can put some basic information about our clients into the system like what kind of car they drive and if they have children and where they work and even their tax bracket. The information is used to refine the numbers and they go into calculating a monthly cost.

There are many costs associated with owning or renting a home that have to do with where the home is. In some zip codes we pay more or car insurance. Living in a walkable area saves time and money. Property taxes also need to be taken into consideration as does the cost of homeowners insurance.

If you are in the market for a home in St. Paul don’t let these numbers scare you, the home I used  in this example is a 350,000 home in Highland park.  The default commute is to downtown Minneapolis.  The cost of insurance seems to be too low. I changed the default down payment from 20% to 5% which makes the mortgage payment higher but most people do not put 20% down.