The WSJ put together a great Q&A on whether now is the right time to move from renting to buying. General gist is that renting is still a great deal due to the amount of incentives that are given today. From the article
“Generally, it doesn’t make sense to buy unless you expect to remain in the house for at least four or five years, because the transaction costs — including commissions for real estate agents and mortgage fees — are heavy.
But now is clearly a good time to rent. Many landlords need tenants badly. The national apartment-vacancy rate in the third quarter was 7.8%, the highest in 23 years, according to Reis Inc., a New York research firm. So landlords are cutting rents and offering such sweeteners as free flat-screen televisions or several months of free rent to retain or attract tenants”
Tags: Apartments, Rent vs Buy, Vacancy
Losing a job and losing a home can be devastating. Unfortunately, this has been a tragic reality for many Americans. To help them out, Rentjungle.com has compiled a list of best cities for starting over. The survey measured such indicators as average rents and home values, median incomes and unemployment rates. Topping the list of best places to get back on your feet were Indianapolis, Pittsburgh and Oklahoma City. All three boast high income ranks (24, 33 and 40 respectively) and low rent ranks (6, 12 and 4). The worst cities for new beginnings were Los Angeles, Miami and New York. Income ranks for these three cities were 35, 44 and 30, but rent ranks were 41, 38 and 45. With this information in hand, Rentjungle.com hopes people can better decide if moving to a new city might be in order.
Read more »
Tags: Foreclosure, Indexes, Rent vs Buy
Knowing whether to sign a lease or a stack of mortgage papers is not always clear. But Rentjungle.com is shedding light on the matter with a new guide to cities that compares renting versus buying by considering the combined cost of average mortgages, taxes and insurance and comparing those to average rents. Much of this data is drawn from the over 1 million apartment ads Rentjungle.com analyzes each month. As of September, the best places to dive into the home market were Houston and Cleveland. In these cities, buying is 52% and 40% cheaper than renting. In contrast, the housing markets in San Francisco and Seattle are so hot that in the former it’s 54% cheaper to rent and in the latter it’s 49%.
Read more »
Tags: Indexes, Rent vs Buy
Subscribe To Updates
