Many buyers are now finding that they can afford to buy a more expensive newer home because the home operating costs have decreased with the increased energy efficiency.

When buying a home you need to remember that there are costs other than the initial purchase price. There are the property taxes, utilities, home maintenance to name just a few but in recent times the utility bills are declining.  The National Association of Home Builders studied home costs on different aged homes and came to the following conclusions.

“It found that homes built before 1960 have average maintenance costs of $564 a year, while a home built after 2008 averages $241. Similarly, operating costs average nearly 5 percent of the home’s value for pre-1960 structures, while they average less than 3 percent when the home was built later than 2008.  The study then compared the first year after tax cost of owning a home by the year the house was built, taking into account the purchase price, mortgage payments, annual operating costs, and income tax savings. This data showed that a buyer can afford to pay 23 percent more for a new house than for one built before 1960 and still maintain the same amount of first year annual costs. While mortgage payments will be greater with the higher purchase price of a newly-built home, the lower operating costs mean the home buyer will have annual costs that are about the same as if they’d bought a lesser-priced, older home with a smaller mortgage payment and higher operating expenses.

The data all depends on where you live, how you use your own utilities, the size of the home and other factors, but it is something to consider when deciding if you should build a new home or buy an older home.