It’s easy to determine the monthly payment for a home by using our calculator. Buyers however need more information about the actual monthly payment they will be expected to make. There are generally five key numbers that a home buyer must have:
- Home owners insurance and that may include flood insurance
- Property taxes
- Home Owners Association Fees
There are no charts with these numbers nor are there any calculators. Every individual property has a different set of costs associated with it. The purpose of this blog is to provide a starting point and from there you can decide what price point may best fit your budget.
Starting with home owners insurance, there are various types. The basic policies issued for fire, theft, and general home issues will not include wind coverage or flood insurance. This is where a modest cost basic policy starts to deviate based upon your location.
If you live on the Mississippi Gulf Coast you will probably be required to carry wind coverage. The cost of this coverage has been going down in recent years and more insurance companies offer it. The cost is added to your basic homeowner policy. If you live in a flood zone which is other than zone X, you will probably be required to carry flood insurance.
Flood insurance is issued by your insurance agent, the U.S. government is the issuer. The cost of the policy is based upon the size of your home among other things. One example is a home in the AE flood zone (it’s located next to water) with a rebuilt value of $300,000 has a policy to $550 per year. If the home is located in an X zone it does not require flood insurance but it’s good to have it and that price will probably be lower than the $550. These are just ball park numbers to help you price out a house.
A home owners policy for a $300,000 home may run between $1,200 and $1,800 per year. This includes wind insurance. These are only estimates although they are based on actual homes that I am aware of.
Property taxes are charged based upon property values and formulas that are located on each of the Mississippi Gulf Coast county websites. I have distilled it down to another ball park calculation. If you are over aged 65, and you apply for the 65+ exemption and the homestead exemption, your tax rate may be about 7/10 of 1% of the actual value of the house. Actual value being what you just paid for it.
If you have filed just homestead and you are under age 65, your rate will be about 1.1% of actual value. These are only estimates based upon some actual rates that I am aware of. The County uses a different way of arriving at the tax on each property. I should mention that the above samples were for single family homes.
If you are buying a home in an HOA, their fees vary but most for single family homes are under $500 per year. Some are well under $100 per year. Most HOA’s are found in newer home developments although not all newer developments have HOA’s.
