I hate to be a party pooper, but renting has not worked in my favor, yet. I sold my home in Nov.’05 for $1,988,000 at what I believed to be the “peak” back then. I was so happy for the first few months, thinking how smart I was. I was wrong. I kept checking the market from time to time, and to my amazement, property values kept going up in my neighborhood. In fact, only in Feb. of this year did prices start a mild turnarond. My home is worth about $600K more now than when I sold it. I just don’t understand it. My realtor say’s “I told you so”, and continues to boast strong sales in my neighborhood. So not only have I lost $600K in continued appreciation, but my rent for the past year and a half totals almost $50K (at $2700/mo.) So for me it wasn’t such a good deal.
