A Word of Advice During a Housing Slump: Rent – New York Times

0atwong • 6th May 2007 • Conversation Pieces

Check out the “Is It Better to Buy or Rent?” tool. It’s a great way to figure out your breakeven costs when you factor in rent, mortgage, tax savings, length of loan, etc etc. Basically what I found out, in Sacramento, it’s very cheap to rent vs. buy. In SoCal, it’s better to buy since rental costs and mortgages are pretty close.
A Word of Advice During a Housing Slump: Rent – New York Times
By the Realtors’ way of thinking, it’s always a good time to buy. Homeownership, they argue, is a way to achieve the American dream, save on taxes and earn a solid investment return all at the same time.

That’s how it has worked out for much of the last 15 years. But in a stark reversal, it’s now clear that people who chose renting over buying in the last two years made the right move. In much of the country, including large parts of the Northeast, California, Florida and the Southwest, recent home buyers have faced higher monthly costs than renters and have lost money on their investment in the meantime. It’s almost as if they have thrown money away, an insult once reserved for renters.

Most striking, perhaps, is the fact that prices may not yet have fallen far enough for buying to look better than renting today, except for people who plan to stay in a home for many years.

With the spring moving season under way, The New York Times has done an analysis of buying vs. renting in every major metropolitan area. The analysis includes data on housing costs and looks at different possibilities for the path of home prices in coming years.