[1]

Pretty good perspective:

Is It Better to Buy or Rent? - Interactive Graphic - NYTimes.com

 

[darren]

Interesting graph!

 

[jaxadam]

Very interesting... I need to send this to some of my friends.

 

[BigM555]

This is one of the better on-line tools I've seen for this analysis. Very easy to use and pretty clear as well as comprehensive. :yesway:

 

[Reverend 7 Strings of Hate]

This isnt taking into account the area. I think the rent comps in the area to a house should be weighed. For instance, you might be owning a giant house, but pay the same as rent for a one bedroom apt(like around here), so while your spending more on a big house, the 1 bedroom apt isnt excatly fair to compare it to because the 2 wouldnt really be equivilants. One is living much better than the other at the same cost. Apples and oranges.

 

[Reverend 7 Strings of Hate]

our house is 800 a month, bought at $78000. 3 bedrrom 1 bath, dining room, kitchen, living room, laundry room, basement We have 1100 Sq ft and a 150x50ft corner lot. For a nice apartment around here, its about 900 for a single, and 1100 for a 2 bedroom.

Obviously i'm saving, but what i ment was that my sq footage is going to be quite a bit larger, inaddition to not having a large plot of land for yourself. So not only am i saving money, but they are getting double screwed due to much less land/square footage.

Its not really taking that into account either.

 

[Toshiro]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (SymbianOS/9.4; U; Series60/5.0 Nokia5800d-1b/21.2.025; Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 ) AppleWebKit/413 (KHTML, like Gecko) Safari/413)

For reference, my 2bed, 1.5bath, 1100sqft townhouse rental is $695/month including water.

 

[Drew]

Nice find, Chris! Sadly, that merely solidified my conclusion that it makes absolutely no sense for me to try to buy anything in the Boston area at this point in my life. :lol:

our house is 800 a month, bought at $78000. 3 bedrrom 1 bath, dining room, kitchen, living room, laundry room, basement We have 1100 Sq ft and a 150x50ft corner lot. For a nice apartment around here, its about 900 for a single, and 1100 for a 2 bedroom.

Obviously i'm saving, but what i ment was that my sq footage is going to be quite a bit larger, inaddition to not having a large plot of land for yourself. So not only am i saving money, but they are getting double screwed due to much less land/square footage.

Its not really taking that into account either.

Well, I think this is a valuable tool exactly because it DOESN'T take area into account. If you're living in a 1 bed apartment and looking at a larger house, then you can't directly compare the two anyway - the better comparison would be to do some research and figure out what the going rate for renting something akin to the house you're looking at would be. If you're paying $500 for a 1bed apartment and you're looking at house the size of the one yours is, then go out and dig around a bit and estimate what it would cost to rent a comparable house in the same area, and use that as a basis for comparison, not your current rent.

I mean, what you choose to use as the inputs is entirely up to you - the calculator itself is great.

 

[105]

My first house was purchased in 1998. It was a 3 bed, 2.5 bath, 1100 sq/ft with basement. I got it for a steal at $185,000. That was 12 years ago. $78k around here doesn't even by a 1 bedroom condo.

 

[Drew]

$78k might not even cover a respectable down payment in Cambridge/Somerville. :/

 

[105]

It's less cash than I put into my current house.

 

[sami]

Oh how my mind races around owning a house (again) or not. I owned a house once, but not anymore. Some other things that go into account besides rent/mortgage comparisons:

Property Tax, maintenance/repairs (especially A/C Heat), upkeeping (grass cutting/watering, fencing), pest control, just to name a few.

For now until I'm happier renting an apartment. There is a LOT of work in keeping a house in order. I'm currently enjoying that when any appliances fail, I can just call maint guy and not have to pay for the repair/replacement.

After my other grandparent passed away a year ago, all my cousins and I gathered at their house for a drunken get-together. That house was all old and falling apart, it's at the point where it's better to demolish and build a new one.

On the other side, I do miss having a garage to work on stuff.

Apologies for the soapbox

 

[Reverend 7 Strings of Hate]

One thing to consider also : Home Warrentys.
We got one when we bought the house. We pay 50 a month, but anytime anything breaks, its only 50 bucks to fix or completely replace with a new one. It has litterally saved us probably 5 to 10000.

So far, we had the ac fixed, then replaced, JUST had the dryer fixed, heater 2 times, garage door, and thats all i can think off of the top of my head. And it only cost us 50 bucks a month.

So there are programs like this out there that really take out the cost of matenience to alot of things

 

[1]

$78k might not even cover a respectable down payment in Cambridge/Somerville. :/

You can't even get a trailer home up here for $78k. :lol:

 

[Josh]

In the Burlington/Essex Junction area, you'll be hard-pressed to find anything under $120k. Drive 20 miles away though and you're spoiled for choice.

 

[Soopahmahn]

I live at the end of the Main Line in Philly, and there's no such thing as a single-family house in respectable condition for less than about $190-200k. My fiancee is really hot on getting a house soon, but I try to keep telling her we owe it to ourselves to try to save 20% and renting something in the meanwhile. It's primarily a lifestyle choice. We're both young and job-mobile, so why start building equity in something with so much market risk and hassle attached to it right now? I figure 2-3 years should be enough to save up.

Check this out too: Should you rent or buy? - Jun. 3, 2010

Trulia rocks :hsquid:

 

[giannifive]

You can't even get a trailer home up here for $78k. :lol:

When we moved to Santa Barbara we knew homes would be expensive, but were stunned to find a mere trailer home was $350k! Any house worth buying (i.e., not a fixer-upper) was at least $900k. Real estate is ridiculous here.

For a concrete example, there's a small, unassuming ranch home (probably 1200 sq ft or so) near me that's "only" $1,050,000.

 

[Zero]

I live at the end of the Main Line in Philly, and there's no such thing as a single-family house in respectable condition for less than about $190-200k. My fiancee is really hot on getting a house soon, but I try to keep telling her we owe it to ourselves to try to save 20% and renting something in the meanwhile. It's primarily a lifestyle choice. We're both young and job-mobile, so why start building equity in something with so much market risk and hassle attached to it right now? I figure 2-3 years should be enough to save up.

Check this out too: Should you rent or buy? - Jun. 3, 2010

Trulia rocks :hsquid:

Oh, you're on the Main Line? I guess the 'end' puts you out in Radnor or something? I'm in Wynnewood. housing here isn't Terribly-priced, but it's in no way cheap. I have friends who live out on the coal belt, and one of them just bought his first house, a 4 bed-3 bath townhouse, for the exorbitant fee of $67,000, in a small town near Mt. Carmel. (Atlas, PA) Only problem is there's fuck-all to do out there.

 

[Josh]

I'm now in the process of trying to find grad-student-friendly living in New York City starting in August. *shudder*

 

[Zero]

I'm now in the process of trying to find grad-student-friendly living in New York City starting in August. *shudder*

Hah. Everybody laugh at the funny joke!