The new growing aesthetic is the granola van life. Grab your oats, ugg blanket, and get comfy. To put it in black and white, in these days of owning a home, van life is probably cheaper. There is so much to take into account when looking at the cost of these lifestyles, first look at the underlying payments.
INITIAL PURCHASE
The median cost to buy a house in the United States is $416,000 as of July 2023. A 26% increase from 2020.
People live in all kinds of vehicles, not just vans, but for the sake of comparing prices, looking at van’s average costs is the easiest.
An article on Yahoo explains that, “The average cost per square foot of a new live-in van is $268. That means that the average live-in van costs about $33,768”. But they can also get a used van for as little as $10,000.
There’s an astronomical difference between over $400,000 and $30,000. One thing to be aware of is that that is a very generalized price; there are other housing options like tiny houses and apartments that don’t necessarily cost $400,000.
It’s all in perspective. There are many statistics proving how the housing market as a whole has only been getting worse.
ANNUAL MONTHLY COSTS
Everyone budgets and handles their money differently.
There are a few similarities between what each owner has to pay for like groceries, insurance, homely items, and even maintenance. Of course each of those things vary on how big the household is, where they live, and what they have.
In the U.S groceries cost between $250 – $550 monthly. House repairs cost about $240 every month if averaged out. As for a van, it can cost $800 yearly. Insurance for a van can cost about $1,329 while house insurance can cost $1,428 on average annually.
According to Bearfoot Theory, “some of the van lifers we know spend as little as $800/month while a good number of van lifers we know spend around $1500-$2000/month”, but can even get up to three grand.
Living in a van means paying for gas more often, especially if they are going place after place often. Expenses for parking and camping spots also have to be considered.
Kristen Bor, a van lifer, explains how if they stay at paid campsites everynight it can cost between $450 – $900 a month. Gas is a bit harder to narrow down. On average it can cost about $200 – $600 a month depending on their van gas mileage, how often they’re on the move, and gas prices.
Owning a home comes with a lot more baggage, there’s a lot more monthly that homeowners have to take into account for.
First their monthly bills look a little heavier than a van lifer. Every month they have to pay for utilities, HOA (homeowners association if that fee is required in your area), property taxes, and mortgage. Other things like house keeping products are necessary too. All together these add up pretty fast.
Owning a house also means outside expenses. On average putting together a patio and lawn can cost $3,994 total.
Property taxes are at least on average $3,370 a year plus whatever the mortgage is on their specific property. Utilities at about $350 a month. Budgeting depends on their income, how many people are in their household, where they live, and how materialistic they are.
One good thing to mention about home owning is that it’s an investment. A house cost has a possibility of always going up, but a van’s cost will always depreciate as the years go by.
In the end averaging everything out does show that van life is probably the cheaper option, but that’s not the case for every household. If they have a larger family it could be much more difficult to comfortably achieve this lifestyle.
IS VAN LIFE FOR YOU?
In the United States, the number of van lifers has increased by 63% in the last couple years. Is it for everyone though?
There are a lot of changes that someone has to go through to convert their whole life into a vehicle. One sacrifice is that they won’t have a permanent address.
All this does is they can’t sign off on any documents that they need their address for. There is an easy fix to that; all they have to do is get a P.O box.
Another important thing to take into consideration is how much they can’t take with you. Unless they have an unlimited budget and can get the biggest RV they can think of, it’s just not possible. They’ll have to look at all their belongings and decide what’s important to always have and what needs to be left behind.
A common question about van life is how to make a steady income while constantly on the road.
Remote jobs are as accessible as ever nowadays; that doesn’t mean it can’t be difficult when they’re starting out. Test the waters and figure out what works best for what they are trying to achieve.
If they live with someone else it’s so important to be on the same page. Converting to living in a van is an incredibly important decision to really process. On social media van life is painted as a fun spontaneous thing to jump into with your partner and Australian Shepard, but it’s much more than that. Everything they know is going to one vehicle, but they do have more freedom.
One last thing that can make or break their decision is weather. Depending on where they are staying there can be extreme weather conditions that may be difficult to handle in a van. If they tend to always be cold, they want to make sure they are prepared to stay comfortable at night, even during the day in the winter.
Depending on what they are trying to get out of life, the van life might be for them. But in the end they might just want to invest into a house and that is okay.
