#2663. My new house

Computer, level: Middle
Posted Sun Sep 15 19:08:20 PDT 2002 by Robert Culp (bobbyculp@hotmail.com).
New Morgan Acadeny, Morgantown, Pa
Materials Required: Computer, Excel, Real Estate Brochures
Activity Time: 3 hours of class time
Concepts Taught: Choose a house and understand it's costs

Anticipated skill set
The student will learn to open and save an Excel file. They will understand that Excel will add, subtract, multipy, divide and chart numbers for them.
The student will learn that housing is expensive and some of the costs associated to housing.
The student will establish a budget both monthly and yearly and calculate the required Hourly rate of pay they must earn to maintain this standard of living.
The student will have a greater understanding of the necessity for a good earning potential and the associated education required.

Additional modules on this spread sheet. The Teacher can also bring in Automotive Sales magazines and classifieds and have the students add a vehicle, gas, repairs and insurance to their budget.
Additional line items such as food, clothes, cd's, etc. can be added for a complete picture of how much life costs. The more realistic the example the greater hourly wage required

Additional modules can be a suggested vocational model to earn the required monies for the students standard of living.

1). Bring in the a pile of free Real Estate Brochures from different Real estate agencies. Have friends and family, in other locations, pick them up for you from all over the US. Especially include places like New York and California.
2). Let the students browse the brochures and chose their home of choice.
3). Have the students go to their computers and fire up MS Excel, Visicalc, or Lotus.
4). Have them enter the value of the home, then calculate the monthly costs of the housing
5). Show them through the PMT function or a simpler calculation of Average payment=((Loan * Interest/12/2) +( loan/360 months))
6). Calculate the school tax at 2.2% * Loan
7). Calculate the insurance as .4% * Loan
8). Calculate the electric as .1% * Loan
9). Calculate Heat as .3% of Loan
10). Calculate Upkeep as .3 % of Loan
When the student has listed these numbers in the spreadsheetfile have them use the SUM function and sum a monthly cost of housing.
11). Head the column "Monthly Costs"
12). Head the next column "Yearly Costs"
13). Write the formula (CELLx * 12) in the adjacent cell.
14). Copy the formula down the column.
15). Sum the yearly column
16). Then divide by 2080 hours to arrive at an hourly cost for housing
17). Have the student create a bar chart showing expenses and a pie chart showing % of expences