scardey, you need to evaluate fundamentals, not stories of 1920 or 2006. Just figure out what you pay in rent, what it would cost you to buy and compare the difference after taxes. When they are almost a tie, you buy and you trade off the maintenance for the rent control. Primary houses are not an investment, look at it as a shelter that you must pay for one way or another.
I put in a bid recently and will find out probably by the close of business tomorrow if I am in escrow. My scenario is a little different because i am renting something smaller than I want because the lease terms were beneficial but I just ran the numbers to compare. Here they are
1600 sq ft rental 1500/mo 3/2/ 2 car
the purchase offer I made is 3000 sq ft 5/4/3 car 1600 mo P%I to buy if I put nothing down (i will put money down but that money costs me profit/interest elsewhere so I use 0 down to do the math). It may be as high as 1750, interest rates have been all over the map day to day.
There will be taxes, insurance, hoa and other costs but they are equal to the tax deduction so I compare the pure 0 down principal and interest using 30 fixed and make my comparison. It isn’t exactly a wash, i’m paying $100 to $200 more to buy but it is much larger place and rent would have been 2k+ for that one had I chose to rent a larger place. I could buy my exact rental for $1100 P&I. In both cases, it’s cheaper to buy than to rent. You need to run your numbers, that is what is relevent, not historical or other parts of the country, none of that matter, just your numbers matter.
Run your own numbers using this formula or post your rent and your purchse price and I’ll tell you if it makes sense, please note if your rental and your purchse are not comparable because that matters. Stop thinking of houses as an investment, purchasing merely locks your rent, nothing more. If you want to invest in r/e, then you buy rental property.
