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.)
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.
Tags: Buy vs. rent, Buyer and seller tips, For buyers, Real estate
Possibly related posts
- Buy vs. rent — #2 — the short term
- How to Live in the Bay Area sans Rent, Mortgage, or Property Tax Payments
- Buy vs. rent — #3 — the long term
?RE: Any thoughts on the feds (in)activity this morning?? August 5 at 9:46 pm 
�Good news, your equity line and business line of credit rates remain the same as yesterday, as the Fed held short-term rates steady today. Why? Because despite unemployment concerns, the economy is doing fine (1.4% growth year to date-- thank you exports!), core inflation is under control at this point, gas prices have dropped over 6% recently and it's more prudent to maintain a steady helm when the economy appears relatively balanced. Eric T. Trailer, Principal
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1 Wisest of the crowds » Rent! (Not Buy vs. Rent) // Apr 25, 2007 at 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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