>After the mortgage is paid off the house will still cost half the mortgage in taxes and insurance After the mortgage, the house isn't necessarily cheap though

>After the mortgage is paid off the house will still cost half the mortgage in taxes and insurance After the mortgage, the house isn't necessarily cheap though a newish condo may not be as bad depending upon where you live. But I figure my house is easily $15K or so per year for necessary expenses unless you're incurring major maintenance debt. And, for example, I just had a random spontaneous kitchen fire in the middle of the night and, even with good insurance and quick fire response, I'm sure I'll be spending a bunch of money out of pocket related to that.