It is time to move, and one of the largest factors when determining a place to live is the monthly rent.  Location, house or apartment condition and neighbors play a factor, but when all is said and done, you really want to be saving money on rent.  Afterall, housing is usually your most costly expense on your family’s budget.

Sometimes we forget to add other items into consideration, and just look at rent.  Here are a bunch of costs to consider when trying to determine which place to rent:

1. Location.  If you live in a place that is really removed from everything, you have to consider the extra miles you will have to be driving to go to work, get groceries, see a movie, see friends, etc.  Not only should you tally up the extra gas you will be using, but you should also account for wear and tear on your car, and your own time wasted behind the wheel.  I have looked at places which would have ended up costing me hundreds a month extra just in fuel/car costs based on the location.
2. Utilities.  Sometimes all utilities are included in your lease.  Sometimes it might just be water, sewer or trash.  Sometimes nothing is included and you have to pay them all yourself.  Don’t forget to include water, sewer, trash, gas, electricity, cable, internet, phone, cleaning, etc.
3. Heating/Cooling.  An air conditioner might be nice, but will usually end up costing you more rent and will hit you hard on your electricity bill.  Also, consider the climate in which you are considering living: Will you use the heat and air conditioner a lot?  What about the unit size?  If the place is huge, it will cost more to heat and cool than a smaller place.  Finally, how old/efficient is the building?  Crappy windows and old insulation will cost more to heat or cool than a place with nicer windows and newer insulation.
4. Cost of living adjustments.  If you live right in the center of a wealthy city, expect to pay more for pretty much everything.  If you are living outside the city in a much more affordable neighborhood, you should be able to pay less for everyday items such as groceries.

When you are comparing places to live, be sure to tally all the costs together to come up with a monthly total that the apartment or house will be costing you.  Apply the same procedure for all your prospective places and you will be able to do an apples-to-apples comparison of all the places.  The best way to do it is on a spreadsheet on the computer.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 16th, 2008 at 2:51 pm and is filed under Budgeting, Long Term Cash, Short Term Cash. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.