Trulia, in its latest Rent vs. Buy Report, tells us that it’s cheaper to buy a home with a 30-year fixed rate mortgage than to rent a home in 98 of 100 of the country’s largest metros.
(You’ve got it…San Jose and San Francisco are the two metros where renting is cheaper than buying. San Jose values have jumped +29% in the last year whereas renting costs have remained the same. In San Francisco, the median home price is $1.3M so take it from there.
Honolulu is the only one of the 98 metros in this study to show less than a double-digit buying advance. The Honolulu advantage is just 2%…on the other end, Detroit shows a 48.8% buying advantage. Nationwide, the average buying advantage is 26.3%.
This buying advantage comes at a time, 2017 – 2018, when rents have either fallen or remained flat.
Here are recent yearly comparisons:
2013 – 36.1% cheaper to buy than rent
2014 – 34.6% cheaper to buy than rent
2015 – 36.4% cheaper to buy than rent
2016 – 41.3% cheaper to buy than rent
2017 – 38.7% cheaper to buy than rent
2018 – 26.3% cheaper to buy than rent
Here is a list of metros where savings from buying over renting are the slimmest:
Metro % Renting Median Price Median Rent
Cheaper Value Value
Than Buying
San Jose 12.2% $1,281,215 $3,500
San Francisco 5.8% $1,399,188 $4,095
Honolulu -2.0% $ 691,978 $2,400
Seattle -10.0% $ 589,265 $2,375
Portland -13.8% $ 397,691 $1,895
Madison -14.7% $ 255,224 $1, 495
Milwaukee -15.5% $ 225,967 $1,375
Sacramento -15.8% $ 407,268 $1,900
Oakland -16.3% $ 684,870 $2,900
Las Vegas -16.8% $ 272,619 $1,350
