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…
Tag: buy-vs-rent
Poll: If I had to choose one, I would rather…
This poll was active 05.19.2013 through 05.25.2013
Nonsense from Trulia: Buying 42% Cheaper than Renting
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…
Your (Mortgaged) Home is Not an Investment
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…
Top 10 Reasons NOT to Buy a Home
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…