Big Houses = Big Heating Bills

(AP)  The airy cathedral ceilings that have helped sell thousands of new homes over the past decade have turned into a liability.

Soaring prices for natural gas and heating oil are making big open spaces much more expensive to keep warm. So homeowners already contending with higher property taxes and, in some cases, larger mortgage payments, are also juggling bigger energy bills.

"We've cut back (on expenses) so much that we don't see much in return because prices keep going up," said Kimberly Muckenfuss, a Washington Township, N.J., mother of five. "It never seems like we're ahead. We are just keeping up."

The family, which has been in their roughly 2,400 square foot home for just over three years, has seen its heating bills rise from $75 a month when they first moved in to $161 a month this fall. The house uses natural gas.

To pay for the higher heating costs, and also more expensive gasoline for their cars, the Muckenfusses are eating more meals at home and they're using a crock-pot and microwave more often instead of the gas stove. The family is even drying clothes on a line, forgoing the gas dryer.

Heating costs have always been a concern for homeowners, but the trend toward larger houses has made energy prices particularly problematic.

When William Levitt — considered by some to be the father of suburbia — began building houses in 1947 for U.S. servicemen on Long Island, the single-family homes averaged about 800 square feet. Today, new homes in the U.S. average 2,300 to 2,400 square feet and ceilings are higher, creating much more space that needs to be heated. And with energy prices rising steadily, heating costs are eating into the budgets of many home owners.

Higher costs have also changed the way some people shop for homes of any size.

Matthew Koziol, who's been trying to sell his West Brookfield, Mass., investment property — a bungalow overlooking a lake — finds potential buyers are worried about energy prices.

"The first question is, how much does it cost to heat the home? And, they are interested in the quality of the insulation," Koziol said.

A prospective buyer looking at a newly built home remarked, "thank God ... the extra insulation will help with heating costs," while a buyer eyeing another property "wanted to make sure the wood pellet stove was staying with the house," recalled Brenda Binczewski, of Carlson GMAC Real Estate in Palmer, Mass.

"Energy costs are becoming a larger part of expenses so people may change what they look for in a new home," said Thomas Kenney, director of engineering services at the National Association of Home Builders, an industry trade group.

According to Kenny, the annual energy cost today is $1,454, compared with $1,190 ten years ago.

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