How much does a home really cost, once you add the income tax, the tax stack, and 11 years of ownership behind it?

Real property isn't hit with sales tax anywhere in the US — but property tax, insurance, maintenance, and mortgage interest more than make up for it over an 11-year hold.

No state charges general sales tax on a home purchase — real estate is legally a different category from the tangible goods sales tax covers. Instead, most homeowners face three separate, ongoing costs: property tax (0.90% of home value per year nationally, but 0.33% in Hawaii vs. 1.84% in Illinois), a real estate transfer tax at time of purchase (Texas charges none — it's constitutionally banned there — while California's county transfer tax runs 0.11%, and cities like Los Angeles layer a much higher 'mansion tax' on top of high-value sales), and homeowners insurance plus maintenance that together often exceed $14,000 a year. The typical American now holds a home for 11 years before selling — the longest tenure on record — which is long enough for a 30-year mortgage to still carry a large remaining balance, and for the home's own appreciation to meaningfully offset the costs above.

• Uses the national average effective property tax rate (0.90% of home value per year) rather than your specific state or county — actual rates range from 0.33% (Hawaii) to 1.84% (Illinois), and reassessment/rate changes over time are modeled only as generic inflation, not a real reassessment schedule.
• Homeowners insurance ($2,470/yr) and maintenance & repairs ($12,050/yr, which Angi's own methodology combines with home improvement spending) are national averages for a $300,000-coverage/typical home, not scaled to your specific purchase price.
• Mortgage interest is calculated only through the 11-year holding period, not the full 30-year loan term — a large remaining balance is still owed at that point, same as in reality if you sell or refinance before the mortgage matures.
• Home price appreciation (3.5%/year) is a derived long-run estimate from the S&P/Case-Shiller index's own trend, not an official published single statistic the way the mortgage rate or property tax rate are — treat it as the least certain figure in this model.
• Resale value shown is gross market value at the end of the holding period, not net proceeds after paying off the remaining mortgage balance — the same simplification used for vehicle resale value elsewhere on this site.
• PMI (private mortgage insurance, typically required when a down payment is under 20%) is not modeled — if your down payment is smaller than shown here, your real monthly cost is higher.
• Real estate transfer tax is shown for Texas (none) and California (county rate only, applied to the national median home price) — your state's transfer tax, if any, may differ substantially, and city-level surtaxes on high-value homes (like Los Angeles's Measure ULA) are not included.