Utility costs, especially energy and water, keep rising. As a Housing Provider, you want to recover the costs you can, especially in a market of softening rents. When you can't increase rent to cover those rising utilities, billing Residents for them can help boost your Net Operating Income for a healthier financial pictures. Livable's innovative Ratio Utility Billing System can help!
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The benefits of consuming less and conserving more
At Livable, we know that energy conservation contributes to our goal of saving the environment and saving apartment owners money.
“At Livable, our goal has always been to help save the environment while also saving apartment owners money by making residents responsible for their utility usage. We have seen that making tenants more aware of their usage can create significant savings. But just how much those savings might be can vary greatly by location, depending on local utility rates. With that in mind, read on to find out where your city ranks in the below list of most and least expensive utility costs” - Daniel Sharabi - CEO
Water
Apartment List showed in 2021 Honolulu in the top spot with an average of just under $90, with second-place Oxnard, California coming in at $83. The West Coast dominates the list of the most expensive average water bills in the U.S. as of 2021 - San Diego took the third-most-expensive spot with $79. San Jose, Sacramento, Seattle, San Francisco, Stockton and Portland all made it into the top ten as well. In the tenth position, with an average water bill of $63 per month, Virginia Beach was the only East Coast city to break into the top ten.
The East Coast tended to be among the cheapest places for water bills, with Upstate New York leading the way. Albany had the least-expensive average water bill at just over $20 a month, but Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo all had water bills under $30 a month as well.
Gas
Honolulu also took first for the most-expensive gas bill and was the only city in the survey to break $90 a month for this utility. Other than that, most of the other most-expensive gas cities were in colder cities since gas bills are often an indication of high heating costs. Detroit, Buffalo, Omaha, Chicago and Boston all had average gas bills above $80 a month.
Electric
Electricity was by far the biggest single bill in all markets and the only utility that didn’t seem to follow a particular geographic pattern. Birmingham, Alabama took the top spot with an average electric bill close to $200 a month. Augusta, Georgia and Memphis, Tennessee all had bills that came in around $180 a month, which we can assume is due in part to higher cooling costs in the south. Connecticut also had several cities in the top ten, because electrical transmission rates are higher in the Northeast, as are land costs for building power plants. Boise, Idaho had the lowest total average utility bill at $186.
Due in large part to its $184 a month average electric bill, Bridgeport, Connecticut has the highest total utility cost of any city in the U.S., coming in at a whopping $353 per month for residents there.
Whether you're on the West Coast, East Coast, and everywhere in between, it's always smart to separate rent from utilities! Don’t let high energy usage take you by surprise, Livable’s user-friendly Property Manager Dashboard makes it easy to see what’s happening at your building and immediately increases the value of your asset. Book a call with a Livable team member today to start saving!
An easy and simple change you can make in your space is to switch to energy-efficient light bulbs such as LEDs that help reduce your bills. Regular incandescent bulbs use heat instead of light to release most of their energy. The modern LED style bulbs save a lot of electricity and money over time as they are energy efficient and last ten times longer compared to regular bulbs.
Property owners nationwide should anticipate across-the-board utility increases in 2021, with some jurisdictions expected to see double-digit rate hikes. Yet there are proactive steps owners can take now to hedge against these additional expenses.
With retail and hospitality industries in a perpetual state of uncertainty since the global pandemic started in 2020, real estate investors have been drawn to multifamily properties. There is particular excitement about properties in areas outside of major metros, like Jacksonville. During the pandemic, these more affordable, less dense areas have become newly popular with former urbanites looking for more space and easier access to nature.
Electricity
Nationwide, property owners should expect across-the-board ongoing utility increases, with some jurisdictions expected to see double-digit rate hikes. According to a survey from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the residential electricity price nationwide increased just under 1% between 2020 and 2021, continuing an upward trend - rates have gone up 6% in the last decade.
Renters fled from the most expensive cities in droves after the coronavirus pandemic began in the spring of 2020, in some states remote work continued into the following year and those who were able continued to leave major cities in search of more square footage, private outdoor spaces, less density and greater affordability.
“As a technology company that serves the multifamily market, we often run across other unique and innovative firms that also use smart systems to make running an apartment building or community easier. We’d like to highlight a few of these cutting-edge businesses”
