If you’re considering a move to Anthem, Arizona you probably want to know what you can expect to pay in utilities each month. Right?
In this week’s video and blog post, thanks to the generosity of some very kind neighbors, I am showing you the average utility costs for two Anthem households.
If this is your first time here, welcome! If you’ve been here before, thank you so much for coming back and spending your time with me. My name is Lindsay and I‘m proud to be your Anthem, Arizona REALTOR® with the Wise Move AZ Team at Realty ONE Group. On our blog and YouTube channel we have a lot of fun talking about all things Anthem and real estate every single Thursday, and we absolutely love having you along for the ride.
Utilities in Anthem, Arizona
Utility costs are one of those things that can be overlooked or can be an afterthought when buying a home. If you’ve watched our videos before you know that we want you to be fully prepared for your move to Anthem, and that includes being very transparent about utility costs.
Obviously, I won’t be able to tell you exactly what you will pay in utilities. I mean, I don’t know if you’re a 5 minute shower person, or a half an hour shower person. I also don’t know if you’ll have your AC set to 80 or 60 in the hottest months of the summer. All of these things make a big difference. Your bills will also depend on the size of your home, how many people live there, whether you have a pool, and so much more.
I have the utility bills for two different households. Let’s call them Household A, and Household B.
Household A
Here’s a breakdown of Household A:
Household B
Household B on the other hand has:
Choose your Benchmark
As you can see, the biggest difference between the two homes is the fact that Household B is about three times the size of Household A. Household B has a pool and Household A does not. The other thing I can tell you is that both households are conscious consumers. Both actively monitor their usage and costs and explore ways to cut them back.
My hope with this comparison is that you can decide which Household is most like yours and use them as a benchmark for what you can expect.
Water & Wastewater
Both Household A and Household B are located east of the I-17 which means their water and wastewater service provider is EPCOR. If you would like more information on the different utility providers in Anthem and how they vary, click to watch this video.
EPCOR is a private water company.
On this chart you can see the water bills from June 2019 to September 2020 for both households. As you can see the bill goes up in the summer months for Household B more so than for Household A. This could be the result of any number of factors, but I am guessing that because of the uncharacteristically hot summer we had this year, the pool was experiencing more evaporation and required additional water. Household B is also on a bigger lot, which means it likely draws more water for landscaping.
Since it’s not that easy to see on the graph let’s do a summary of the last 12 months, which is October 2019 to September 2020.
Electricity
Now let’s take a look at electrical bills since June 2019. For both of these homes electricity is provided by APS.
I’m sure it’s not surprising to you that the larger home consistently uses more electricity than the smaller home. That being said, both homes show very similar patterns of lower bills in the winter months and higher bills in the summer months. I’m going to go out on a limb here and blame most of that increase on our Air Conditioners. The desert gets hot and it’s can get expensive to keep your home cool. If you want more information on how the Anthem weather changes throughout the year, click to watch this video.
Let’s take a look at a summary again for the last 12 months.
Natural Gas
Both homes receive service from Southwest Gas.
Much like the electrical bill you can see that both homes have a very similar annual trend. The bills are higher in the winter and lower in the summer generally. The interesting thing is that the larger house, Household B, doesn’t have significantly higher gas bills. Our gas bills are higher in the winter months because that’s typically when we have our heat running. People may make more use of gas fireplaces, and so on.
If you’re watching this from somewhere cold, you might be laughing at me right now. I honestly don’t know what happens when you move to the desert, but I’m telling you, even 80 can feel chilly.
Let’s take a summary of the last 12 months.
I used to live in a place where it got REALLY cold, so these $15 gas bills definitely make me smile.
Trash and Recycle
Both of these homes receive private trash and recycle pick up by Republic Services, and guess what! I don’t have to do any fancy graphs or charts for this one because Republic charges a per household fee. The cost is $55.89 per quarter, which works out to $18.63 per month. Not bad, right?
Full Service
Republic is awesome because not only do they have weekly garbage and recycle pick up but they also offer bulk item pick up every other month and they offer Christmas tree drop off at the end of the holiday season. They also host Go Green recycling events twice a year where you can get rid of stuff like paint and electronics. It’s kind of a big deal around here.
Republic Services’ Contract
Also, this is just kind of nerdy and extra but if you are moving to Anthem you may be interested to know that Republic’s contract was just extended. The current rate will stay the same until the end of 2021, and then we will see slight increases each year, up to $20.17 per month in 2025. Again, not bad.
Total Utility Bills
To tie this all together, if you will be in a home similar to Household A between water, electricity, gas, and trash, you can expect to pay $193.55 per month on average. If you’ll be living in a home more comparable to Household B, you can expect to pay $282.30 per month on average.
I know that your opinion of these utility costs will depend a lot on where you’ll be moving from. For me, I have lived in quite a few different places and the utilities in Anthem seem to be on the lower side, but I’ll be interested to hear your thoughts.
We’re Here to Help
We would love to be a part of your move to Anthem, so if you’d like to learn more about working with us, drop us a comment below or send us an email at Team@WiseMoveAZ.com.
Additional Resources
Lastly, if you’d like more information on the utility providers in Anthem, click to watch this video, or if you’d like tips on buying an Anthem home, click to watch this video.
Enjoy those and I’ll see YOU next Thursday!
