Buying a house today is often more expensive than renting. Is it still worth it?
Buying a house today is often more expensive than renting. Is it still worth it?
New data out from real estate firm CBRE shows that the average monthly mortgage payment — if you’re buying a home today — is about 75% higher than it would have been in 2019.
Nationally, new monthly mortgage payments are now about 35% more expensive than renting. And in some cities, like LA, Austin, Salt Lake, and Seattle, it’s about 140% to 160% more expensive to own now.
So how does that affect the calculus of renting versus buying?
Owning a home has long been a central part of the “American Dream.” “For many Americans — especially middle- and lower-income Americans — that’s kind of the primary way that a lot of folks build wealth,” said Chris Salviati, a senior housing economist at Apartment List.
These days, for those who don’t own yet, “that math has kind of changed a little bit,” he noted.
All of the components of homeownership have gotten more expensive. That includes home prices and interest rates, which are the main things people tend to think of, per Jenny Schuetz at Arnold Ventures.
“The other two pieces that we don’t think about as often are property taxes and insurance,” she said. And those have both risen, too.
Insurance has historically been a small fraction of most people’s monthly payment. “But in the last several years, as natural disasters become more costly and more frequent, we’re also seeing rates go up,” Schuetz said.
Given all that, Andrés Shahidinejad, an assistant professor of finance and economics at Northeastern University, said that if you’re weighing renting versus buying today and just thinking about the math, “I think everyone should be leaning a little bit more than they were before in the direction of renting.”
But for most people, buying a home is usually not just about numbers, he added. “There’s also an emotional component to it.”
And that carries a lot of weight, too.
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