House of life

We live at home.

So far we have only accounted for 61% of the spending for housing. Where does the remaining 39% of housing costs get used? Again, the survey exposes some connected decisions or consequences from choosing your home.

On average 21.6% of the housing expense is for utilities and public services such as natural gas, electricity, fuel oil, water, sewage treatment, and possibly garbage collection. Community or government regulations will often constrain these decisions as an outcome of the housing location. This infers the need to include them as part of the housing decision evaluation. These expenses also track with overall increases for shelter associated with increased income. This adds additional motivation to include these additional housing expenses when considering the choice for shelter.

What does this all mean?
Housing choices consume about one third of the yearly average spending in the United States based on the data available from the Consumer Expenditure Survey. Looking at some of the details in the survey, we are able to identify many of the related decisions that will be included or constrained by the choice of housing as shown in the housing decision network.

Using this connected decision network when making housing decisions can help prevent being surprised by unintended consequences after housing choices are made. The information in the CES can also be helpful in providing guidance to budgeting for many common consumer spending items.