We just booked our first month stay in New Braunfels, Texas. We are scheduled to arrive Nov. 1 and check out the last day of the month.
The German influenced town of New Braunfels is situated about halfway between Austin and San Antonio and home to a pretty amazing water park called Schlitterbahn. It’s also known for river tubing down the Comal River that runs through the middle of town. The bad news is it will be too cold for us to take advantage of either of these, but we look forward to exploring the area during our month there. We are staying in a 3 bedroom 2 bath condo. Here ‘s link to see all the pics of the Condo. Total cost for the month in New Braunfels - $2,187 At first glance it felt really expensive. We did find some other options that we a little cheaper, but were either older, not quite as nice or in a weird location. So, ultimately we booked this. After booking we decided to see how this cost compared to our current living expenses. It seems way higher. We have a pretty low mortgage ($1050), and utilities are never too high. First lets look at what’s included in the $2,187 New Braunfels condo:
Even with everything included, the price seemed high to me. So we broke down what we are spending now to get a more realistic comparison. Our set monthly home expenses:
We are still way under cost compared to the month in New Braunfels. But no, there’s more. Owning a home is much more than just those montlyh costs. What about home repairs and improvements? This is where everything changed. We have lived in our house 4 years. So, we went back and found what we had spend money on for our house during that time outside of the monthly expenses. Here’s what we found: We have spend $41,400 on home repairs and improvements in the last 4 years! This was hard to believe, but if anything we are low on this number. One reason it is so high is that after moving in we renovated the whole house and spend around $20,000 on that. So about half of that cost is from the initial renovation investment in the house. Still there were some really surprising things that add up. For example:
Finally we took the total ($41,400) and averaged that our over 4 years to see what we are averaging in home repairs and improvements. Monthly average for home repair and improvements over 4 years - $862.50 per month Owning a house is awesome, but it is not cheap. Adding our monthly expenses with our average home repair and improvements: $2,272.50 Now the direct comparison of cost per month with the New Braunfels Condo didn’t seem so high all of the sudden. New Braunfels, Texas Condo - $2,187.00 Our monthly home expenses - $2,272.50 Obviously this comparison is far more complex than this short explanation. For example, the condo is half the size of our house, plus there’s not the great backyard we love and enjoy here at our house. That’s just one of the many factors that could be looked at to compare this. But, I think the thing that was most surprising is how expensive it can be to have a house. And even though the price to stay in this condo for a month seems high, a more in depth look made us realize that we’re closer to our current expenses than we initially thought.
1 Comment
Jenny Cerda
8/14/2017 06:28:23 am
You are going to LOVE that area! I lived in San Antonio for a couple of years and it is amazing. So many cool things to do there. Sea World, The River Walk, tons of Missions to visit, The Alamo...close drive to Mexico...LOVED it. I can't wait to follow your adventures there! I am going to live vicariously through you!
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