How Much Is Your House Costing You to Keep?

7 things to consider when the house you love is becoming a lot to maintain.

Does this sound familiar?

I talk with a lot of homeowners, and there are some who tell me they aren't necessarily ready to move, but they're beginning to wonder whether their home still makes sense for the life they're living now.

It's just you at home. Two or three bedrooms rarely get used. There's a dining room nobody eats in and maybe an entire basement that gets visited only when it's time to change the air filter.

Meanwhile, you are still heating, cooling, insuring, cleaning, and repairing ALL of it and... ugh...maintaining all the grounds too. And yet, when you discuss the idea of making a move, the answer you land on is often some version of:

“I'm not sure I'd be any better off.”

And that's such a common conclusion... because a smaller house isn't automatically a better financial decision, and a larger house isn't necessarily a waste of money just because you don't use every room. If this sounds at all like you, I would encourage you to consider your situation like this:

Does the home you have still bring you enough value to justify what it's asking from you?

If the answer to that is, “maybe,” here are seven things I'd recommend you consider before you make any changes.

1. What does my home actually cost me every year?

If your mortgage is paid off (or even close to it,) it's easy to think, the house really doesn't cost me that much.

But something I think we forget is that the mortgage is only one piece of the cost to consider. Grab a sheet of paper, and just take a moment to jot down the property taxes, homeowners' insurance, electricity, gas, water, lawn care, pest control, HVAC service, HOA fees, routine repairs, and everything else you spend just keeping the property running. Don't use what you think you spend. Take a moment to find the actual numbers, wherever possible.

You may be surprised.

2. How much of your house are you actually using?

Think about a normal Tuesday. Not Thanksgiving or the week your friends or family come to visit. Where do you actually live?

Kitchen? Family room? Primary bedroom? Maybe an office and another bedroom?

There's nothing inherently wrong with having space you don't use every day. But if you're maintaining 3,500 square feet and routinely living in 1,800 of it, it's worth asking what that additional space costs you—and whether it's still worth it.

3. What's coming in the next five years?

This is a big one, and it's a cost I think we homeowners can often overlook. Look around your house and ask:

What's likely to need replacing before 2031?

Roofing? HVAC? Water heater? Windows? Appliances? Flooring? Exterior paint? Decks or porches? Driveway? Septic work? Landscaping? None of those things individually mean you should move.

But if you're already questioning whether you want to maintain this much house, pouring another significant amount of money into it over the next five years deserves to be part of your decision.

4. What is the house costing you in time?

This one doesn't appear anywhere on a bank statement, but it's important to evaluate because of the impact to YOU. How many Saturdays do you spend mowing, blowing leaves, cleaning gutters, maintaining the pool, or working around the house? How much time do you spend finding contractors, waiting for repair people, and dealing with the next thing that breaks?

At some point in life, I think many of us start to feel that time becomes more valuable than square footage.

Now, maybe you'd rather spend your Saturday mornings in the yard. If you love it, then that's not a burden. But maybe you'd rather be traveling, hiking, spending time with your friends, seeing your family, meeting new friends, volunteering, playing golf—or maybe just doing absolutely nothing.

The life we create often becomes more about the time we have free to spend how we want than about the things we own and accumulate.

5. Why are you keeping the extra space?

I think this is where the calculations become very personal. Maybe you're keeping four bedrooms because your children and grandchildren come home several times a year. Maybe your house is where everyone gathers for Thanksgiving and holidays, and you love that.  In those cases, the “unused” bedrooms aren't necessarily unused... they're just less frequently used. And most importantly, they're serving a purpose that matters to you.

So I wouldn't ask yourself:

Do we really need all this space?

I'd ask:

Does this space still support the life and relationships that matter to us enough to justify keeping it?

Your answer may very well be yes!

6. What could your life look like if your house required less from you?

This is a consideration of downsizing that I think can often get overlooked. We often start the conversation by focusing on what we would have to give up. The big, private yard. The basement and all its storage. The extra bedrooms. The house where memories were made.

But there's another side of the equation I encourage you to give thought to:

What might I GAIN?

Could you lock the door and travel for a month without worrying about the property?  Live entirely on one level and eliminate stairs from your life entirely? Could you spend less time maintaining a yard, and more time on what is important to you? What about living closer to your children, grandchildren, friends, family, the beach, or mountains? Or, could you free up money for travel, investing, giving—or simply create more financial breathing room for your future?

Don't just picture the smaller house.

Picture the life, and freedom, that comes with it.

7. Would moving actually improve your financial position?

This is where I'd want to see actual numbers before making any big decisions. Selling a $700,000 house and buying a $500,000 house doesn't automatically put $200,000 in your pocket. There are selling expenses, moving expenses, and purchase costs. Your new property may have an HOA. Taxes and insurance could be different. You may want to make improvements after you move.

And, on the other hand, your monthly and annual expenses could decrease substantially.

So I'd want to know: What would I realistically net from my current home, once I pay off any mortgages or HELOCs, costs of moving, etc.? What would the home I actually want next cost? What would my annual cost of living look like afterward?

...Only then can we make a meaningful comparison.

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There's one final question I think is worth asking yourself:

If I didn't already own my house... knowing what it costs and requires from me today, would I choose to buy it again?

If the answer is absolutely, that's valuable information.

Your home may still fit your life beautifully. However... if you find yourself hesitating, it doesn't mean you need to put a For Sale sign in the yard today. But it may mean you owe it to yourself to start exploring what else is possible. Because there's a cost to staying somewhere you don't really feel is the right home for this season of your life. And as we've discovered, only part of that cost is measured in dollars.

A lot of it is measured in comfort, freedom, and time.