Buying Outweighs Renting

If you?re stuck between the decision of whether to buy or rent a home then you?re in luck!

According to a recent Rent vs. Buy index generated by Trulia.com, a top site for buyers, renters, and homebuyers, buying a home is now more affordable than renting in 72 percent of major U.S cities.

The top two cities on the more affordable to buy list are Miami and Las Vegas. This is primarily due to the high number of foreclosures and increased unemployment rate that has occurred in recent years.? A few other cities that made the list are Arlington, TX, Meza, AZ, and Sacramento, CA. The top two cities that are more affordable to rent as opposed to buy are New York and Seattle; however, buying in these cities is seen as a financially sound long-term option to consider.

To create this list, Trulia compared the average listing price of a house with the average rental prices of a two-bedroom apartment, condo, and town home in the top 50 largest U.S cities.

The rental costs included in this analysis were the price to rent and the insurance costs. Incorporated into the option to buy were the mortgage principal, interest, closing costs, property taxes, hazard insurance, and homeowner association dues. This excluding all maintenance, bills, and security costs.

What was discovered was that, recently, the cost to buy has become more affordable since the start of the ?Great Recession? due to financial difficulties and the principal of supply and demand. Areas that supply a more steady rate of employment, such as, New York, keep housing prices at a higher rate this causing the demand to rent seem more reasonable.

Metro Area Low Price Home, 6% Loan 7% Loan 2 BR Rental 3 BR Rental Cost Difference Between 6% Loan and 2 BR Rental
Buffalo, NY $557 $636 $704 $871 $147
Syracuse, NY $557 $635 $713 $913 $156
Rochester, NY $626 $715 $773 $982 $147
Santa Clara, CA $3,778 $4,311 $1,293 $1,859 ($2,485)
San Francisco, CA $3,637 $4,149  

 

$1,592 $2,125 ($2,045)
Columbus, OH $847 $967 $718 $903 ($129)

– Information taken from MSN.