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What Extra Costs Should You Expect When Buying a Home in Big U.S. Cities?
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Jun 19, 2025
Buying a home is a major investment—but have you considered all the extra costs beyond the sticker price? From inspections to HOA fees, these hidden expenses can catch many buyers by surprise. In this video, we break down the real costs of buying a home and compare them across five major U.S. cities: Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Orlando, Chicago, and Milwaukee. Watch now to get smart insights and answers to the top home-buying questions! You can learn more about What Are the Hidden Costs of Buying a Home in Major U.S. Cities? on our blog through this link: 👉 https://real-estate-crunch.com/what-are-the-hidden-costs-of-buying-a-home-in-major-u-s-cities/ #RealEstateCrunch #HomeBuyingTips #HiddenHomeCosts #FirstTimeHomeBuyer #RealEstateAdvice #USHousingMarket #PropertyTips #BuyingAHome
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[Music]
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hi this is Anita from Real Estate Crunch
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today we're going to talk about some of
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the things about buying a home in
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particular what are some of the hidden
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costs of buying a home and we're going
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to talk about this in the sense of the
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United States for major US cities but of
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course this would be not the same for
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anywhere in the world when you're buying
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a home there's some things you need to
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look at number one is the home
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inspection cost this can cost anywhere
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between $300 to $600 uh there can be you
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know different types of add-ins which
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can go into this too so you know this
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could add up but before you buy you'll
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want to have the home you're looking to
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buy be professionally inspected for
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structural issues pest you know the
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heating and air condition systems and
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more this is usually the buyer's
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responsibility so this usually falls
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upon the buyer appraisal fees you'd also
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want to you know have it be appraised to
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verify the home value actually matches
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uh the loan amount and this again you
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know is usually something that's out of
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pocket um you know during the that you
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need to pay during the loan process
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property taxes can vary by state so a
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lot of people when they're looking at
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buying a home they don't really think
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about the property taxes but that's
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something you need to think about when
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you're buying a home for affordability
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is to make sure that you can afford the
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property taxes other things like
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homeowners insurance you need to make
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sure that you can afford the home
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owner's insurance you know need to be
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able to protect your home from things
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like you know damage theft or liability
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or other types of things you know one of
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the big problems which has been
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happening in you know California with
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the fires was a lot of the homeowners
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there didn't have insurance for fire or
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or you know some people that we have had
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recent floods didn't have home insurance
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for floods so essentially the floods
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destroyed their homes they lost
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everything fire destroys their home
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they've lost everything you know HOA
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fees the home association fees you know
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these can really add up they can be
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anywhere from a hundred to $1,000 a
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month and they can really make a
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difference so if you don't account those
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into your monthly payments you could be
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in trouble i've seen some places where
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you know the buying is relatively low
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but then you look at the HOA fees are
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$700 a month i mean that's huge so if
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suddenly your payment is $2,000 a month
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and now you've got $700 a month plus you
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know on top of it property taxes you
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know it could be you know $400 a month
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and you really need to look and say is
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that worth it or not worth it um closing
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costs can be expensive too you need to
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look at all the different things for the
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closing cost as well as moving costs
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they can vary anywhere between $500 to
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$5,000 depending upon how far you're
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moving or even further if you have to
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move even further it can cost even more
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and things like ongoing maintenance it's
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recommended that when you own property
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you put aside 1 to 3% of your budget in
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order for home maintenance and repairs
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you know we can compare I have a chart
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here in in a blog post I've written
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where I'm comparing some of the costs in
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some of the major cities from Phoenix
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Arizona i have Salt Lake City Utah
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Orlando Florida Chicago Illinois and of
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course Milwaukee Wisconsin which is kind
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of where I'm from so you can see sort of
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some of the difference uh for example on
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all of these the appraisals between $450
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to $600 with Chicago being the most
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expensive but the home inspection can be
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anywhere between $350 to $700 again with
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Chicago the most expensive but of course
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other places it's expensive too so it's
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very similar down the line and then you
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know different things you'll need in
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your budget it really just depends upon
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the area but you know surprisingly
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Phoenix Arizona was up to $18,000
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you need extra Salt Lake City 15 Orlando
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Florida you know be 20 uh Chicago 25 and
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Milwaukee 19 so some of them are pretty
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much about the name but it just depends
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you know and then the tax rate of course
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um can be different in each of these two
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so insurance too can also make a
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difference where you know um you know
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Salt Lake City had one of the cheaper
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insurance cost where of course one of
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the highest cost was Orlando Florida
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that would because of the hurricane
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season of course and then after that was
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Chicago because Chicago is a major city
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so hopefully this gives you some ideas
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of of some of the different cities and
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what they are so you can look at them
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and you can see you know you should you
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should really you know budget for all
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these hidden costs and even if you think
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that you don't need it you should still
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keep it in your budget and if for some
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reason you're lucky and you don't need
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it then maybe you can use it and go on a
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nice holiday somewhere or go somewhere
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if you're interested to be able to read
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more about this we've written a blog
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entitled What are the hidden costs of
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buying a home in major US cities we will
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put a link in our description below so
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that you can be able to click on that
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and be able to read more we really
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appreciate you joining with us being
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part of our community we hope that you
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find these things informative that it
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helps you to be able to understand more
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to make better decisions for such an
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important investment as real estate
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