The annual cost of owning and maintaining a family home has dropped for the first time in four years due to lower mortgage rates.
The latest household survey from AA Home Insurance says it now costs just over €16,200 a year to run a home.
That figure equates to about 41 percent of the average Irish national wage and is €222 lower than this time last year.
But homeowners holders in negative equity who bought at the height of the boom are still worse off.
Their variable rate repayments are around two-thirds higher than someone who bought a home this year.
