<p>Bravo Oldfort -- wonderful to learn of such achievements, and to hear how they are maintained and honored.</p>
<p>Good luck Ms. Air Painter!</p>
<p>I suppose that might make sense if you had a mortgage/home value approaching $800k-$1MM. But the amount you are spending on utilities seems completely out of whack. </p>
<p>I would figure at most $400 a month for gas, electricity, and water and another $200 for phone and TV. If you start to want iPhones then things get expensive.</p>
<p>My parent's property taxes in one of the best school systems in Upstate New York is around $500 a month. Our house might be worth $250k. Any property taxes more than 3 percent of the value of the house strike me as really high.</p>
<p>Utilites for us are quite a bit higher.....but I think Long Island is more expensive than upstate. Gas, elec, water are closer to $600 a month, phone, tv and internet are about $250 close to what you stated, property taxes are $1000 a month....on a home valued appoximately $450M in one of the best school districts on LI. Property taxes on LI are huge....many of the new construction homes would be double what ours are.</p>