A common question our real estate expert receive at Raleigh Cary Realty is whether buying or renting is the best option. Each comes with pros and cons. For example, when buying a home each payment made builds equity, but there are other costs to ownership and homeowners need to handle repairs themselves. Renters have the advantage of landlords to take care of maintenance, but they’re essentially not investing money in a residence they’ll one day own.
Overall, according to 2017 housing market trends reported by Trulia and the ATTOM Data Solutions 2017 Rental Affordability Report, buying a home is the better option to make financially.
4 key reasons it’s better to buy than rent in Raleigh are:
- Percentage of income needed to buy versus rent has changed dramatically. Over recent years, the amount of income needed to rent has been higher than what it costs to buy, 25% to 22% respectively. So, it already costs more to rent than buy before a huge shift occurred.
- Total monthly costs for owning a home is still cheaper than rental costs. According to the Rental Affordability Report, the total costs for a median-priced home in the U.S. (including taxes, insurance, HOA fees, mortgage, etc.) is more affordable than rental costs for a three-bedroom property in 354/540 counties were analyzed. So, this seems to be a trend across the U.S. and buying is a better option financially with rapidly rising rental costs.
- Mortgage Interest can be written off which can dramatically affect your taxes. See your accountant as always with latest tax laws but a large portion or all of your home interest can be written off for tax purposes depending on the price of your home.
- Lock in on your home payments. Where rent can continue to rise in your area. If you purchase a home at a locked rate you know what your house payment will be for the next 15 to 30 years and once your home is paid off you may not have any house payments. The rental rates in the Raleigh & Cary area especially along with the rest of the Triangle area have seen significant changes in the rental rates increasing.
Check out the linked reports above for more detailed data related to buying versus renting in 2017. For more information about Triangle housing marketing projections in 2018, contact our local real estate experts at Raleigh Cary Realty today!
