Should you save each year for maintenance on your home?

Under the one percent rule, you must set aside at least one percent of the value of your home each year for home maintenance. Major home repairs, which are not part of regular home maintenance, are more unpredictable and much more expensive. The maintenance of the summer house can be done by checking the appliances, taking care of the outside of the house, being safe in the garage and taking care of the landscape. Before planning a budget for home maintenance and repairs, it's important to first know what that entails.

Saving money for anticipated costs can be difficult, especially when you've just bought a new home, but even if you can't save as much as you'd like right from the start, it's important to start saving something for home maintenance as soon as you move in. Even if you don't spend your entire home maintenance budget on maintenance every month, it's a good idea to put the leftover money into a savings account. This method will only work if your previous homeowner was responsible for keeping up with routine maintenance and minor repairs. The table below shows how you can adjust your annual home maintenance budget based on the location of your home.

So, while many experts use 1 percent of the cost of housing as a good starting point for the maintenance budget, it's best to save about 3 to 4 percent annually for an older home, since annual maintenance costs will likely be higher. Finally, if your home has higher maintenance needs, consider whether more than 2% needs to be budgeted for. This is because the average annual cost of maintaining a home turns out to be just over 1 percent of its value. A little knowledge and planning goes a long way in understanding how much to budget for home maintenance.

The most common method of estimating home maintenance costs is to assume that you will spend between 1% and 4% of your home's value each year. Another way to roughly calculate how much money you should save for home maintenance is to use the square footage of your home. Once you've created a priority list, set some savings goals based on these average home maintenance costs for replacement.