The Costs of Homeownership Go Well Beyond Your Monthly Payment

There's always something going wrong with my house.

Yesterday, the microwave broke. Early in the morning, I put a mug of water into the microwave, and when the time was up, I opened the door -- and the microwave kept running. Yikes.

Last week, the garbage-can track inside the cabinet broke and had to be replaced. Earlier this year, our refrigerator stopped keeping things cold, so we had to replace it as well. (Big surprise: The new refrigerator actually cost less than we paid for the original 10 years ago.) Our kitchen sink faucet broke, and we're on the hunt for a replacement below $300.

The seal of the picture window in my office has broken and been replaced twice. We've installed new gutters and put heat wires on the roof to help keep ice dams at bay.

Did you know that your smoke detectors work for only a few years before you have to switch them out? A couple of years back, we heard irregular beeping from one of ours. We called the manufacturer and were told that we should vacuum our detectors on a monthly basis. I don't know anybody that goes around their home vacuuming smoke detectors.

Then there's the ongoing house maintenance.

In the summer, we have weekly -- or semiweekly, depending on the amount of rain -- landscaping chores. It takes my husband, Sam about an hour to mow the lawn, plus extra time to trim the bushes, weed and water the flowers, and sweep up the plant debris. In the winter, he does snow removal. Once a year, we seal our driveway. We'd have to repaint the exterior of our house about every three to five years if we didn't have vinyl siding (an easy decision after calculating the cost of painting).

Inside the house, we have to change all kinds of filters and batteries, repaint rooms from time to time, replace carpet and appliances when they break, spray for ants in the spring, watch for leaking in the fall, and so on.

Our rental properties aren't cost-free either. We've had good tenants and bad, clean and messy ones. Between leases, the apartments need painting. One tenant's dog scratched up the hardwood floors in one of our units so badly that we had to have the floorboards replaced and the whole floor sanded and sealed. And although you tell tenants to change filters and batteries, and to take the lint out of the dryer, not all of them do -- some see that as a landlord's job.

My point is simple: It's expensive to own and maintain property. Here's what you can expect to pay:

-- Mortgage, real estate taxes, homeowner's insurance premium. Often called PITI (principal, interest, taxes and insurance) for short, you'll either pay it altogether each month (if you escrow for taxes and your insurance premium) or you'll have to write a monthly check for the mortgage and an annual or semiannual check for taxes and insurance. These days, more lenders require homeowner's insurance on condominium purchases, in addition to the insurance obtained by the condominium association.

-- Homeowners' association fees, co-op assessments, monthly maintenance fees. If you live in a condo, co-op, townhouse development or single-family subdivision, some sort of fee will have to be paid regularly to cover the maintenance and expenses of the common areas.