Here’s how much I spent in my first year of owning my home

When I bought a townhouse in Cincinnati, Ohio in July 2022, I was thrilled by its possibilities. 

While the home covered all the basics you would want (four walls, a roof, etc.), I wanted to spruce it up a bit. I made plans to redo the tub/shower combination in the townhouse’s one full bathroom that hadn’t been touched since the 80s. I started saving for a kitchen renovation — the cabinetry was badly stained inside from decades of use and had several coats of paint outside. I pulled paint samples to swap the current black and blue palette throughout the house and bought supplies to get a fresh white hue on the walls. My partner moved in and we were thrilled about starting a new adventure together — he was looking for new work and taking on home projects while searching. I had relatively few worries and was more than happy. 

Then, I logged onto work one day at the end of August and got laid off. 

We’d been living in the home for a little more than a month. In an instant, making a home was no longer a priority. Keeping the house was. I paid the September mortgage from my emergency fund — I’d been fortunate enough to build up several months’ worth of mortgage payments in a high-yield savings account.    

Despite all this, we still managed to spend over $6,600 in the first year of owning this home — not including the mortgage, homeowners insurance, and utility expenses. This past year has taught me a lot about the costs of owning a home. Even when you’re not trying to spend money on a home, it’s easy to do, and you sometimes don’t have a choice.

My partner and I spent very little to move our things into the house. For the cost of a few tanks of gas in my dad’s pickup truck, we were able to get most of our things moved. We didn’t use movers — my family nearby helped a lot in the process.  

Between the two of us, we already had many of the necessities we needed to turn a house into a livable home. I had a bed, couch and a TV, and he brought a dining table and chairs. I spent $600 to add a piece to the modular sofa, making it big enough for two. One of the bigger expenses was a new washer and dryer set for $1,200 since the previous owners took the old set. We moved these things in and started to settle in.  

We spent about $200 on kitchen supplies and organizational tools, installing a hanging pot rack and buying some extra shelving for the kitchen. I put some money into getting my office together — I spend a lot of time there since I was working from home. I bought a new desk for about $200. Over the two months, $740 bought me new bookshelves and a new desk chair since my previous hand-me-down was falling apart.   

I knew in theory all the ways that owning a home was expensive well before I made the down payment and signed the paperwork. The average homeowner spends about $6,300 on their home each year, according to real estate company Clever.  

But learning the expenses of homeownership in practice was an entirely different thing. Pair that with the reality that anything can happen at any time, and my entire perspective has changed. Bills and mortgage payments don’t care if you’re unemployed. Things still break and you still have to fix them, though we were lucky there were no major problems in the several months we didn’t have much income.  

When you own a home, there’s no opportunity to break a lease and there’s no landlord to foot the bill when that refrigerator or heater goes on the fritz. It’s a huge financial commitment and is why you need to approach buying a home with a serious plan for how you’ll pay for all of your expected expenses —plus the ones you never imagined. 

I’ll always have an emergency fund when possible

After this, I will never go without an emergency fund. Though I’m in the process of rebuilding the one I drained while unemployed, I’d stress to anyone, but especially homeowners, just how important it is to have cash on hand to cover situations you haven’t even considered possible.  

Everyone has their own comfort level when it comes to the amount of extra cash they keep on hand. But if buying a home would take every penny in your savings account, keep renting. Before you buy a home, make sure that you have a comfortable emergency fund. Anything can — and will — happen. Having an emergency fund is the one thing that can stand between you and financial ruin — it did for me.  

I’ll save more aggressively for the next emergency fund and am aiming for six months’ worth of expenses in the account (experts suggest somewhere between three and six months). I keep mine in Betterment’s Cash Reserve account to keep it growing with a higher-than-normal interest rate during the (hopefully long) stretches when I don’t need it, and I like the service’s easy-to-use mobile app. I’d also suggest SoFi’s Checking and Savings account, one of CNBC Select’s top picks for its generous welcome bonus.  

Looking back on this time in our lives, this whole situation could have been worse. My partner and I made it through one of the hardest things a couple can go through. Much about the house itself is still the same. It’s still livable. It’s still got the same less-than-ideal bathroom, and the stains still greet me behind the peeling painted doors in the kitchen when I make us dinner. The things that I thought would be important to me have become small problems I’m happy to overlook. The home is still ours, and that’s more than enough for me.  

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