Owning vs. Renting a Home
By: Diane Tuman Content Manager | April 23, 2008
Today’s Wiki Wednesday Feature: Owning vs. Renting a Home
The mortgage crisis has sent the real estate industry into a tailspin with lots of potential buyers standing in the wings,
waiting for the bottom to appear. In the meantime, we all need to live somewhere. What’s the option if not buying a home? Obviously, renting. Today’s Wiki Wednesday featured article, Owning vs. Renting a Home, dissects the pros and cons of each route. Which is the best thing for you? There are many factors, but two that jump at me seem to hold more weight:
- Lifestyle — If you are happy-go-lucky, don’t like to mow the lawn or do maintenance, have an uncertain income and need flexibility, renting is probably for you.
- Location — If you live in a vibrant real estate market where the home values have been consistently strong for decades, and you have the means and desire to own, then buying might be the right choice.
According to a recent article in the Seattle P-I, the rental market in Seattle is a vicious one, with rents at an all-time high and vacancies very low, which means if you’re a renter in Seattle, the pickings are slim and the costs are high. This is especially a conundrum if you don’t want to buy because while the rest of the country hurtles downward in double digit losses, Seattle is staying relatively strong with only a -0.3 percent change in the Zindex year-over-year. So, if you live in Seattle, there is a good chance you’re going to be pinched if you’re a renter or a buyer.
While the rents are rising in Seattle, just the opposite was happening in Phoenix, Austin and Miami, according to this MSNBC article “Apartment rental costs are all over the map.” Assess where you live and learn what rentals are going for and, of course, read the pros and cons of Owning vs. Renting a Home.
Fun links:
World’s most expensive rental markets (Forbes)
Analyze your rent rate(Rentometer)
Cost-of-Living wizard (Salary.com)
Ed: Wiki Wednesdays is a weekly feature that highlights helpful or interesting articles from the Real Estate Guide.
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- Categories: Real Estate, Wiki Wednesdays, Zillow
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Rent or Own? Zillow has the answers…sort of « theFrontSteps…step inside san francisco real estate on April 23, 2008 9:58 am
[...] and his Submedian Calculator, but there are always more ways to skin a cat, so why not skin Zillow’s while we’re at [...]
Renting vs. Buying — Zillow Wiki Swings and Misses « The Notorious R.O.B. on April 23, 2008 10:51 pm
[...] Tuman over at Zillow blog talks a bit about their Wiki article on Owning vs. Renting. It’s a clever way to get people over to [...]
Links Back to the Week That Was 4/27 » The Real Estate Blog by Cari McGee on April 27, 2008 8:33 pm
[...] age-old question (no, not THAT one!) - buy or rent? Looks like renters will pay a pretty penny here AND in the Seattle area, as occupancy rates are [...]
Katrina Munsell, Redfin Sweet Digs, Seattle on April 29, 2008 1:59 pm
Good update on the rental market! It’s so important to examine the rent versus buy decision in today’s erratic market.
I hammered out a quick analysis on rent versus buy on comparable properties as well in an earlier blog post of my own, though I bet rents are now higher, as you mention, than they were at the time…