Killer Buy vs. Rent Calculator

April 10, 2007

I long ago put together a buy vs. rent calculator and it served as the basis for my buy vs. rent series.

The New York times has just come out with a pretty good buy vs. rent calculator of their own (might soon disappear behind a paid firewall.)

Buy vs. rent calculator

Its conclusions are basically the same as mine:  Assuming roughly the same rental cost vs. property price ratio as we have here in the Bay Area, you’re better off owning than renting over a 4 year or greater period if property prices appreciate by 5% per year or more.

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Written by Kevin · Filed Under Buy vs. rent, Buyer and seller tips, For buyers, Real estate 

Comments

One Response to “Killer Buy vs. Rent Calculator”

  1. Wisest of the crowds » Rent! (Not Buy vs. Rent) on April 25th, 2007 4:09 pm

    [...] karim April 25, 2007 Permalink Trackbacks 0 Looking for a great buy-rent analysis tool? Go no further the the New York Times. Kevin Boerblogged about it here, and I have to further endorse this product. Very cool Ajax interface and has all the things you need to understand the issues. Warning! Do not accept their base assumptions, some of which are in “Advanced Settings”, “General”. The main value to a tool like this is playin with different assumptions so that you can understand the real drivers. I have inputted some assumptions below based on a friends analysis of spending $6,850 to rent a house that might ordinarily cost him $2 million in San Francisco (yes these are real numbers…it is that expensive here!). [...]

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