The Hidden Monthly Costs of Staying in Your Current Home

By Nancy Adinolfe

Nancy Adinolfe is a top-producing RE/MAX real estate agent who has served California clients since 2018. A member of the RE/MAX Master Club, she provides expert guidance to buyers, sellers, and families throughout Sacramento, Elk Grove, Folsom, Rancho Cordova, and surrounding communities.

What if I told you your home is costing you hundreds more every month than you think? Not your mortgage. Not your payment. The other stuff. The costs have been creeping up so slowly that you stopped noticing them. Most homeowners have never added it all up. When they do, the number shocks them.

I sat down with a homeowner a few months ago here in the Greater Sacramento area. She wasn’t planning to sell. She just wanted to understand her options. So I asked her a simple question: outside of your mortgage, how much are you spending every month to stay in this home?

So we added it up together. Insurance had nearly doubled. She was paying for pool maintenance, landscape maintenance, pest control, and an HVAC system that needed a repair every few months. When we totaled it all up, she was spending more than $900 a month on top of her mortgage just to maintain a house her kids had already moved out of.

She looked at me and said, “I had no idea.” Most people don’t.

Your property taxes have been climbing. Most homeowners set up autopay and stop looking. If you’re protected under Proposition 13, your property taxes can only increase by up to 2% of the assessed value per year. That’s the good news.

But if your property was reassessed under Proposition 8 during a market downturn, your taxes can climb back up substantially as values recover. That reassessment isn’t capped at the same 2% annual increase. It can jump in larger increments until it reaches your original Proposition 13 base value. A lot of homeowners who saw their taxes drop during a dip are now watching them climb back up and don’t fully understand why.

What you were paying five years ago and what you’re paying now could be hundreds of dollars apart every month. If you downsized or moved to a lower-tax area, that number could drop significantly. But most people never run the comparison because the increases happened gradually.

Your insurance isn’t based on what you paid. Homeowners insurance has spiked across California. Your premium isn’t based on what you paid for the home. It’s based on what it would cost to rebuild it today, and construction costs have surged. A lot of homeowners are paying 30% to 50% more in insurance than they were just three years ago. That’s real money every single month, and it’s only going in one direction.

California’s insurance market has been especially volatile. Carriers have been pulling out of certain areas, and the ones that remain are pricing in wildfire risk, construction inflation, and regulatory costs. If you haven’t reviewed your premium recently, the number might surprise you.

The small costs that add up to a second payment. The pool maintenance. The landscaping. The pest control. The aging appliances need a repair every few months. The higher utility bills are due to older windows and an outdated HVAC system. None of these feels like a big deal on its own.

Add them up, and many homeowners are spending $500 to $1,000 a month on top of their mortgage just to maintain a home they may have already outgrown. That money disappears quietly, month after month, and most people have never totaled it up. They see each line item in isolation, and it feels manageable. But when you put them all on one page, the picture changes.

What to do with this information. If you’ve been in your home for a while and you’re not sure what it’s actually costing you to stay, I’d love to help you run the real numbers. Sometimes the math points you toward selling. Sometimes it doesn’t. Either way, you deserve to know.

Knowing where you stand doesn’t commit you to anything. It just gives you the information you need to make a decision with clarity instead of guesswork.

Call or text me at (530) 313-3158, email me at nancy@listingexpert.net, or visit listingexpert.net. Let’s find out where you actually stand.