Across The Country, Renters Are Getting Crushed By Housing Costs

[jeff47]

25. It sure is local.

I wouldn't buy a house where I currently live. Because it's a failing former-manufacturing city. House prices are tanking as people with any marketable skills flee.

I'm trying to move to a different city. I already own a house there that I'm currently renting out. I'll happily buy another. Why? Because it's a growing city with slowly climbing property values - it didn't really have much of a bubble, so the prices are still fairly reasonable.

As for rent-vs-own, if you're going to look at it from a purely mathematical angle, it's usually better to own if you are going to live in the same place for 5-ish years, as long as the real estate market is not like the first city I mentioned.

The rent always going up while your fixed mortgage does not, plus equity, results in a savings if you stay in one place that long. And it's really not that hard to stay in one place for 5-ish years.

Of course there's non-mathematical reasons for and against buying a house.

As for your graph, all you've done is documented there was a housing bubble. Oooo, shocking. Of course, you're talking as if that bubble was still in effect instead of us returning to the long-term trend where the two lines are more-or-less parallel.