Can You Own for Less Than You Can Rent?

By in Mortgages with 0 Comments
Published on September 9, 2010 / Last updated on September 9, 2010

Yes!

As I have posted before, it’s near impossible to get a rental here.  Apartments are at 99% occupancy.  Finding a house to rent is like finding a needle in a haystack.

KEPR-TV broadcast a story last night that shows how the problem isn’t going away, and in fact, is getting worse because, as the story relates…

At the end of a lease, many landlords have the ability to reevaluate apartment rental rates based on market demand. Since demand has been steadily increasing in the last year, most apartment managers have increased prices between $25 and $45 a month each time a lease is renewed.

So, not only can you not find a place to rent, if you do, you’re paying a premium for the privilege.

This is where buying a house comes in….

If you bought a house a 3-bedroom, 2 bath home with a garage for $150,000, at a fixed interest rate of 5% over a term of 30 years…

and put 3,5% cash down ($5,250)…

and taxes hovered in the $1700 range…

and your homeowners insurance was about $750 annually…

Your mortgage payment would be less than $1,000 a month!

(Calculations courtesy of the iPhone Mortgage Calculator application)

And you’d have more bedrooms than the apartment provides you with, and a yard for a pet or a BBQ AND you’d be building equity.  You’d be working toward owning something instead of supporting someone else’s ownership of property.

Of course, every person’s financial picture differs, and for some it might make more sense to rent.  However, this might just be the right time to buy since it costs so much to rent.

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About The Author
Cari McGee

My husband and I came to the Tri-Cities in 1994, and we thought it would be a temporary stop on our way to larger cities. He was a television sports anchor at the time, and we planned to go wherever the "next step up" took us. Twenty-plus years later, we're still here and we've loved every minute of it! We have two children now, and we've found the Tri-Cities area is a wonderful place to raise a family. It's a great place to do outdoorsy things -- I like to hike Badger Mountain or run along the river path. I also love reading ... by a cozy fire in the winter or a beautiful picture window in the summer (with the A/C on!). I've been a licensed Realtor since 2004. I earned my managing broker's license in 2016, which means I can run my own brokerage, or create a team of real estate agents and supervise them, which is exactly what I did when I formed the Cari McGee Real Estate Team in 2018! We have administrative and marketing personnel, as well as additional agents to serve you. I became a director of the Tri-Cities Association of Realtors Board of Directors in 2016, became Secretary/Treasurer of the organization, and was elected to Vice President in 2019. Want to talk about real estate? Click here to schedule a meeting with me!

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