A few months back, the New York Times ran an article and an accompanying calculator to explain that for some people, renting makes more sense than buying (obviously flying right in the face of conventional wisdom that everyone needs to buy and own or they fail at life and are wasting money). I ended up coming up with numbers that said that homes for rent make more sense than homes for sale.
In fact, according to that calculator, it would take a whole lot of ideal conditions for buying to make more sense than renting. In my case, it would take 17 years (30 with more realistic property tax numbers) to be saving more by buying than by renting.
And that’s just based on the known costs. If I buy a home, I also have to worry about the roof, the appliances, the sidewalk, the walls, leaks, pipes, etc. In fact, for most homeowners I know, mortgages and property taxes are not the big costs; it’s the unexpected stuff that breaks / malfunctions. A sink here, a toilet there, a roof here, and so on, and the next thing you know? You’re spending tons of money.
In my world? Sink leak? Call the super! Toilet not working? Call the super! A few days ago, my bath tub backed up pretty badly. Super came up. Boom. Problem solved.
I’m not saying it’s always better to rent. There are times when the savages I sometimes share this building with make me hate renting. There are people who, near the cans for the garbage down stairs, will leave their garbage on the floor as if they dropped it and can’t be bothered to grab it. But frankly, I’ll take that over a leaky roof!
Oh yeah, and I can move whenever I want and not have to worry about my old place selling in a dead market first!
The takeaway is simple: don’t automatically assume buying is a better bargain. Use the calculator I linked above, then head to Move.com and check out the listings for what’s available (also linked above) in your area.
Viva renters!