local real estate news, statistics, and commentary without the sales spin.
For years, the gold standard in online buy vs. rent calculators has been the one created and hosted by the New York Times. This week, they released a brand new, updated and enhanced version: Is It Better to Rent or Buy? The new version lays out all of the variables in a clean and simple…
This poll was active 05.19.2013 through 05.25.2013
Longtime P-I real estate reporter Aubrey Cohen certainly knows how to get my attention. Here’s a story he ran on their site yesterday: Report finds buying a home way cheaper than renting Buying a home is way cheaper than renting in all 100 of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas, including Seattle, according to a new…
In late June’s post where I plotted the long-term trend of inflation-adjusted local home prices, there was some disagreement with my snarky insinuation that zero real appreciation over thirteen years (1999 to 2012) represents a lousy investment. As one reader correctly pointed out, the stock market’s total non-inflation-adjusted return over the same time period is…
We spend most of our time on here focused on home buying—prices, economics, neighborhoods, etc.—but I thought it might be nice to have a brief reminder that buying a home isn’t for everyone. For many people, renting is simply the better choice, even if home prices are at a reasonable level supported by the local…