A common starting point is to save 1% of your home’s value each year for maintenance and repairs. A better answer comes from your own house: list the big items that will wear out, divide each replacement cost by the years it has left, and add routine upkeep. This calculator does both and shows the monthly amount to set aside.
Three ways to set the budget
- 1% of value per year
- Rule of thumb
- Cited in the CFPB homebuying worksheet
- 1%–3% of value
- Range
- Cooperative Extension; older homes toward the top
- $1 per sq ft per year
- Heuristic
- No official source
- Component plan
- Your home
- Sinking fund per item + routine upkeep
How the calculation works
- Rules of thumb: home value × 1% (and × 3% for the top of the range), and square feet × $1. These ignore your home’s age and condition, so treat them as a sanity check.
- Sinking fund per component: replacement cost ÷ years left, where years left = expected life − current age. An item at or past its expected life counts its full cost this year.
- Component plan: the sum of all sinking funds plus your routine upkeep (servicing, filters, gutters, small repairs). Divide by 12 for the monthly target.
Default life spans come from InterNACHI’s estimated life expectancy chart, which says its figures assume regular maintenance and normal wear and should be used as guidelines only. The replacement costs in the tool are placeholders; get quotes for your home.
Worked example
A $400,000, 1,800 sq ft house with the default list in the tool: a 12-year-old architectural shingle roof (30-year life), a 10-year-old furnace (20 years), an 8-year-old central AC (11 years) and a few appliances, plus $1,200 a year of routine upkeep. Costs are example figures.
| Item | Cost | Years left | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roof | $15,000 | 18 | $833 |
| Gas furnace | $6,000 | 10 | $600 |
| Central AC | $6,000 | 3 | $2,000 |
| Water heater | $2,000 | 4 | $500 |
| Refrigerator | $1,800 | 7 | $257 |
| Dishwasher | $900 | 3 | $300 |
| Exterior paint | $5,000 | 5 | $1,000 |
| Routine upkeep | $1,200 | ||
| Total | $6,690 (≈ $558/mo) |
The 1% rule would say $4,000 a year and $1 per sq ft would say $1,800. The component plan says about $6,690, because the AC, dishwasher and water heater are all near the end of their lives. Once those are replaced, the plan drops. That is the point of doing it item by item.
Edge cases
- Condo and co-op owners: the building usually handles the roof and structure through common charges or maintenance, so list what is inside your unit.
- Costs are in today’s dollars. Re-run the tool each year and after any replacement.
What to do next
Add maintenance to your real cost of ownership with the true monthly cost of owning in NYC, follow the seasonal maintenance checklist, and check your coverage with the homeowners insurance coverage estimator.