Quote:
Originally Posted by bizaro86
Fair enough, but we aren't talking about - "honey, I don't like the color of the granite counters any more, we need to put in quartz"
Strictly maintenance type stuff. I bought my house 11 years ago, and paid a bit over $500k, and it's probably worth that now. We haven't spent $55k on it the entire time, even including very discretionary appliance upgrades. We will need to do windows soon, which will be way more than $5k, but even at the $30k I'm budgeting for that we will be well under $5k per year averaged over time. It's a 37 year old house, so not like I was on a new house maintenance holiday.
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I don't think 5% on average is too high if you want to maintain a nice home. You'll need a roof every 25 years ($15k?), you'll need new windows every 40 years ($30-50k?), you'll need interior paint every 15-20 years ($12k?), fence every 25 years ($4k?), deck/trees/exterior landscaping care ($300-$800/year minimum), exterior paint for the structure(s) every 10-15 years ($5k), appliances: hot water tank every 15 years ($1k), dishwasher every 12 years ($500), stove/fridge/washer/dryer replace every 20 years ($5k bare minimum for econo machines).
The above just barely keeps your house at the standard it is at today. Everyone I know likes to improve things over time, too, with the odd reno or update. Change some fixtures, buy a storm door, plant some annuals, etc. Have you been to a house that hasn't been renovated in 50 years? It looks like crap every single time. Nothing lasts forever. If you've only put $55k into your house you have either let things go, haven't tracked your spend well, or have been incredibly lucky with your timing.