Alrighty, folks! Let’s dive into the juicy bits of homeownership that might just have you clutching your wallet. Eric G is unpacking the shocking truth about average home maintenance costs, and spoiler alert: it’s way more than what most homeowners think. While the average Joe expects to fork over around $70,000 over their lifetime, the reality hits like a rogue hammer at over $339,000! That’s roughly $7,000 a year, which is enough to make anyone’s heart skip a beat. So, if you’ve been living under the illusion that your home is a low-maintenance paradise, it’s time to wake up and smell the leaky faucets. Tune in as we break down these numbers and throw some light on why saving for those unforeseen repairs isn't just a nice idea, it's a necessary survival tactic in the wild world of homeownership! Homeownership comes with a hefty price tag, and today's chat is all about uncovering the truth behind maintenance costs. Eric G dives into a recent study from Synchrony, which reveals that the average homeowner expects to spend around $70,000 on maintenance over their lifetime. Spoiler alert: they’re way off. The reality? We're talking about a staggering $339,000. Yep, you read that right! That’s more than $7,000 a year! Eric highlights the shocking disconnect between what people think they'll spend versus the actual numbers. He emphasizes that many homeowners delay necessary repairs due to financial constraints, creating a ticking time bomb for future expenses. We also delve into the skills gap among new homeowners, who often lack the DIY abilities that were once commonplace. With the average age of appliances and systems in homes decreasing, it’s crucial to start planning and saving for these inevitable costs. Eric suggests creating a dedicated home maintenance fund, because let’s face it: those surprise repairs won’t fix themselves. So grab your piggy bank and tune in to learn how to keep your home in tip-top shape without breaking the bank!

Takeaways:

1. Homeowners vastly underestimate maintenance costs, expecting around $70,000 when the actual figure is over $339,000. That's a big gap, folks!
2. Many homeowners delay necessary repairs due to financial pressures, leading to higher long-term costs. Don't be that person!
3. The average homeowner spends more than $7,000 a year on maintenance, which can really add up over time. Start saving!
4. New homeowners are often less skilled in DIY repairs, making them reliant on costly services. It’s time to embrace the toolbox!
5. With the repair market booming post-pandemic, homeowners need to budget wisely for inevitable expenses, or risk being blindsided. Who wants surprise costs?
6. Most appliances don’t last as long as they used to, so be prepared for replacements sooner than you think. Plan for that refrigerator apocalypse!

Companies mentioned in this episode:

1. Synchrony
2. Red Wing

Thanks for listening to Around the house if you want to hear more please subscribe so you get notified of the latest episode as it posts at https://around-the-house-with-e.captivate.fm/listen

If you want to join the Around the House Insider for access to the back catalog, Exclusive Content and a direct email to Eric G and access to the show early https://around-the-house-with-e.captivate.fm/support

We love comments and we would love reviews on how this information has helped you on your house! Thanks for listening! For more information about the show head to https://aroundthehouseonline.com/

Information given on the Around the House Show should not be considered construction or design advice for your specific project, nor is it intended to replace consulting at your home or jobsite by a building professional. The views and opinions expressed by those interviewed on the podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Around the House Show.

Mentioned in this episode:

Subscribe to the podcast

Make sure and Subscribe on your favorite podcast player or the link below!

Podcast Subscribe 2026

Foreign.

The House with Eric G. Your go

to source for everything home improvement.

Whether you're a DIY enthusiast or just

looking to make your space shine, Eric G. Is here to guide you through the latest tips, tricks and trends.

So grab your toolbox, put on your

thinking cap, and let's get to work right here on around the House with Eric G. Welcome to the around the House show, your trusted source for everything about your home.

I'm Eric G. Thanks for joining me today, guys.

Hope everything's well.

Well, today I wanted to jump in and talk about this new report that I just saw come out.

This is a great midweek special, midweek update kind of topic here.

This came from Synchrony, a leading consumer financing company.

They did a new national study called Lifetime of Home Care.

This is interesting, guys.

Hope everybody's doing well out there.

So they went out and did a study to see what is the expectation of homeowners on lifetime home maintenance costs.

Homeowners expect to spend about $70,000 on lifetime home maintenance costs.

Wrong.

The actual costs exceed $339,000 or more than $7,000 per year on average.

And nearly half of homeowners have delayed or canceled repairs due to economic pressure driving higher long term costs.

And seven out of 10 homeowners lack adequate repair services for inevitable emergency repairs.

So this really kind of tells us that we have a huge gap out there of what people think it's going to cost to maintain things and what it's not.

And so pretty interesting.

You know, we've got new homeowners coming in that have less skills than we saw 20 or 30 years ago on average because, well, we took out most of the home shop repair classes that we took in school, the wood shop, the mechanical stuff.

So many schools put in computer labs in those same spaces.

And now we have people that have to pay stuff to get it fixed versus repairing it themselves as a DIY project.

So it's interesting.

So despite recent softening, the US repair and remodeling market remains nearly 50% above pre pandemic levels, says Topping about $600 billion.

Well, it's really interesting.

That shows us kind of there's a financial burden with this as well, which is home care.

Gotta take care of the place.

And if you think about it, I know there's people out there that are kind of shrugging their shoulders going, oh yeah, I bought a new house, I'm good.

Well, I tell you what, in today's marketplace out there with most homes the way they're constructed, you think about Appliances, most appliances don't last seven to 10 years.

So if you go out and buy a new home, yes, you start out with everything brand new.

But by year seven, maybe that microwave has gone away, Maybe, maybe that refrigerator's on its last leg.

Washer and dryer are dying.

Dishwasher, it's almost toast.

Water heater, if you haven't maintained it could be gone in that H vac system, guys, if you haven't maintained it every single year, that could be on its way out as well.

So if you really start thinking about that, even with a brand new home, that starts to catch up with you very quickly.

So it's really interesting here thinking about that disconnect that we're finding and where homeowners, many people out there are expecting on this study to pay 1 to $5,000 tops.

The actual costs do exceed 7,000 a year.

So if you have major repairs, you could be in the mid 400,000 mark over the lifetime of that home, if you have to put in an H vac system, water damage, things like that.

So pretty, pretty interesting stuff.

And I think it's something we should pay attention to because I tell you what, when you get a roof that rarely lasts 20 years, this stuff starts to add up quickly.

If you're not out there staying in that deck every few years, if you're not out making sure the gutters are clean, everything's caulked up.

All those maintenance things that we talk about every year, we've got our spring home maintenance checklist coming up here soon.

I tell you what, it's one of those things that we need to dive in and make sure that we take care of.

Because anytime we do some of that maintenance like that, we're ticking away ourselves out of that $339,000 average.

So the more we can do ourselves, the more money we have in our pockets and the more we're not having to pay somebody else to do it.

You know, it's great.

Yesterday I was here working on my studio, working on this weekend show, and I hear some saws and stuff going next door.

So I look out the window, check it out, contractor next door.

This house is not seven years old.

Swap it out a bathroom window.

Yep, it looked good.

They did a great job.

It was awesome.

I was so.

I wanted to go out and just give the guys a good golf clap out there because they flashed her.

They did go a little excessive on the caulking.

I will say that was a little big.

But other than that, I'd give them a Solid a. I'll go 92%.

But really it ended up looking great.

And they did it right.

But I bet you that was a thousand dollar window replacement.

Fifteen hundred dollar window replacement.

So second story, they had scaffolding set up, a couple ladders and they're out there for most of the day because they wanted to do it right.

And I give them that.

They had to cut back on the window and even that, that, you know, of course that window is going to be a different thickness a little bit.

So they had to do some modifications.

Did a great job.

The time they were in and out, I'd say they were in there six, seven hours.

But that just shows you two or three guys out there.

Plus with the window.

And that was just one window.

So you start to think about what those things cost.

Well, we start, should start planning on that.

You know, maybe you should have a fund for your house, start out saving it up, have 10 grand setting that fund out there for just the maintenance costs.

We do it for our taxes.

In many areas where you have your taxes taken out and put in.

So that is one of those things you kind of think about, okay, what is your budget for maintenance?

And I'm not talking about when you have to put in the new water heater, you have to put in the new H vac system or oh my gosh, I need a new roof.

Because none of that stuff's covered by insurance unless you bought a home home warranty.

And you know my take on the home warranties, it's not bad if you're buying a house and you can get somebody to throw it in as part of the deal, but the rest of it, nah, don't mess with it.

Don't mess with it.

I do not like the home warranties in these situations, if you're going to go out and buy it, I would say, you know, here's the problem.

I mean they do cover things, don't get me wrong.

But it's like anything else.

What are they doing?

They're going to sit there and make sure that they are repairing everything.

You're not going to get a brand new furnace in most cases.

So things to think about when you're dealing with that because that can get totally out of control.

And you know something, I don't want to see you paying more than you have to.

You might be better taking some classes, learn how to fix it or put in a budget for hey, that refrigerator could die.

Because so many times these days.

With what it costs to fix a refrigerator, you're almost to the point of going out and buying another one.

Especially if they're charging you two or three hundred bucks just to get out and take a look at it.

That stuff adds up quickly.

You might just be better off to put a a budget in there than to buy that extended warranty.

All right, enough about burning holes in your wallet.

Let's talk about a few things on our update here.

Couple things.

We have our new YouTube channel, Around the House HQ.

We've made some changes even as early as this morning here.

We're in the middle of changing today.

Doing some stuff on there.

We have you two YouTube channels, the at around the house Eric G. And around the house HQ.

What we're gonna see is the podcast stuff is gonna be A lot of it is gonna be over on the original show that we have there.

So that's gonna have our interviews, that's gonna have the stuff that's gonna be related to the basically our podcast and radio show.

Let's keep it simple.

A lot of that's going to be right there.

However, our new main channel is going to have more of the product reviews, DIY fixes, projects, that kind of stuff.

So we're building those out and some interesting interviews that aren't going to make it into the radio show or podcast.

Sometimes we're just standing out there and we run into people and maybe it's not relevant for that.

Even though we might be talking about home improvement, the context sometimes doesn't translate into good audio.

So you'll see some interviews.

We got some coming up there this week, too.

I'll just say it's somebody important from Shark Tank and we'll leave it at that.

Well, we've got a lot of great stuff coming up and I tell you what, I am so excited we're gonna be announcing here this weekend.

We teased about it last week, but new we got some new tips from Red Wing, which I'm super excited about and I can't wait to show you more about that.

All right, guys, well, I gotta get going.

I have got so much to do today, including making some changes on YouTube over there and getting those things dialed in.

But check that out.

You can find out all that information in our podcast notes.

Always hiding right there.

Have a great rest of the week.

We got a great show coming up this weekend.

I can't wait to show you.

We're going to be doing some debates and this one's going to be interesting.

Do they build those houses like they used to.

Is that a good thing or is it a bad thing?

Johnny and I debate that one out on Saturday.

Can't wait to show you that one gets interesting.

We get a little bit into what we think is good and what we think is bad and it's a good strong debate.

So we'll see you then.

Thanks for tuning into around the House guys.

I really appreciate you and make sure to show that share this show off to your friends, neighbors, family and we're here to help you guys out.

And of course, if you got questions for me, hit me up@aroundthehouseonline.com.

we'll see you Saturday.

Thanks for tuning in to around the House.

Thanks for tuning in to the around the House show.

Make sure you subscribe on your favorite way to catch podcasts or also be sure to subscribe to our new YouTube channel and you can find it at around the House HQ and ring that bell for updates.

Thanks for tuning in to around the House.