What Does It Really Cost to Stay in Your House?

Selling a longtime home carries obvious costs: an agent's commission, repairs, moving expenses. Staying feels like it costs nothing by comparison, since there's no transaction. That's usually the wrong way to look at it. Staying has a price too, it just shows up monthly and annually instead of all at once at closing, and for a lot of homeowners it's larger than they've actually added up.

Insurance Has Gotten More Expensive, and Less Certain

Average homeowners insurance in Los Angeles now runs somewhere between roughly $1,600 and $2,600 a year, and that's before accounting for what's happened to the market since the January 2026 wildfires, which caused more than $40 billion in insured losses and made coverage harder to find and more expensive across the region. If you're in or near a higher fire-risk area, this isn't a stable, predictable cost anymore, it's one that can shift meaningfully at your next renewal, and it's worth checking your actual current premium rather than assuming it's what you paid a few years ago.

Property Taxes Are More Stable, But Not Nothing

Los Angeles County property tax runs at an effective rate of roughly 0.69% to 1.4% of assessed value once voter-approved bonds and assessments are added, with a median annual bill in the city around $5,400. If you've owned your home a long time under Prop 13, your assessed value is likely far below market value, which is part of what makes staying financially appealing. But it's worth remembering this benefit is tied to the property, and understanding exactly how it would or wouldn't transfer if you moved is a separate, important conversation (Prop 19 covers this for homeowners 55 and older, and is worth its own look).

Routine Maintenance Adds Up Faster Than People Track

A reasonable budgeting rule is to set aside 1% to 2% of your home's value every year for maintenance and repairs, meaning $8,000 to $16,000 annually on a $800,000 home, before anything unexpected happens. National estimates put average annual home maintenance spending well over $10,000 for routine upkeep alone, and that figure doesn't include major system replacements like a roof or HVAC unit reaching the end of its life. A home you've owned for decades is more likely to need one of those big-ticket replacements in the near term, not less.

Aging-in-Place Modifications Are Their Own Line Item

More than half of adults 50 and older who want to stay in their current home report they'd need modifications to do it safely: grab bars, wider doorways, ramps, walk-in showers, sometimes a stair lift or a ground-floor bedroom conversion. These aren't small projects, and they're costs that don't exist in the "just staying put" mental model until the need becomes urgent, at which point they often have to happen quickly and at a premium.

What the Alternative Actually Costs, for Comparison

For context: the median cost of a private room in an assisted living facility in the Los Angeles area has climbed to around $6,281 a month, while in-home professional care at roughly 44 hours a week runs closer to $7,100 a month. Neither of those numbers is a reason to move, but they're useful for comparison, since "staying is free and moving is expensive" isn't actually the choice in front of most homeowners. The real choice is usually between two different sets of ongoing costs, and running both sets of numbers side by side is the only way to know which one actually fits your situation.

The Takeaway

Staying in your home isn't free, it's a different set of costs than selling, spread out monthly instead of concentrated at a closing table. Before deciding that staying is automatically the more affordable option, it's worth actually adding up your current insurance, taxes, likely maintenance, and any modifications you'd need in the next few years. The number is often bigger than people expect, and it's the only way to compare staying against your other options honestly.

This article is general information, not tax or legal advice. For your specific situation, talk to a qualified professional.