How much could upgrading their home hike your customers’ mortgage payments?

Just adding an additional room to a household could mean adding thousands of dollars in annual mortgage payments

How much could upgrading their home hike your customers’ mortgage payments?
Just upgrading from a two-bedroom to a three-bedroom home could mean paying nearly $450 per month more on a mortgage, according to Zillow.

“Move-up buyers,” or households in the same zip code for the last seven years with a typical two-bedroom looking to expand to a three-bedroom household, are looking at an additional monthly mortgage payment of $447, or $5,364 per year. The time period is based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau, which found that the typical time families with small children spend in their home is seven years.

The additional mortgage payment also depends on the market.

Markets in the Midwest, South and Southwest, such as Chicago, Cincinnati and St. Louis could expect an additional $150 per month. But households in hot, coastal markets could expect an even bigger increase – $500 or more per month – on their mortgage payments. Moving up from a two- to a three-bedroom home in Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Jose, buyers could expect an additional monthly mortgage payment between $1,033 and $2,224 – or $12,396 to $26,688 annually.

Here are some of the additional monthly costs of moving up from a two-bedroom to a three-bedroom household in select metro areas:

United States (median): $447
San Jose, Calif. – $2,224
San Francisco, Calif. – $1,660
Denver, Colo. – $601
Las Vegas, Nev. - $357
San Antonio, Texas – $198
Cleveland, Ohio – $74


Related stories:
Morning Briefing: Home prices picking up pace
Morning Briefing: Pending homes sales slip on tight supply