RE: Own vs Rent
From: Rob Sandelin (floriferousemail.msn.com)
Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2000 21:46:47 -0700 (MST)
Maybe the big difference is appreciation, if it happens. You either pay the
landlord or pay the bank. I have read in a couple of places, that unless
your real estate market is appreciating more than 15% a year, and renting is
20% cheaper in monthly costs than a comparable mortgage (Around here that's
certainly the case) then you are financially better off being a renter,
taking that 10% and investing in the S&P500.

My house has appreciated $75,000 in 10 years. Over ten years, had I invested
the difference in rent vs. home cost in the S&P500 I would be up about
$200,000 ahead at this point. Of course, I would not have done that, but
thats the argument I always read.

But around this part of the world, the financial bar for homeownership keeps
getting higher and higher. The median home sale price in my area is
$220,000, which would take $22,000 for a down payment and about $1,900 a
month in mortgage costs.

Rob Sandelin
Northwest Intentional Communties Association
Building a better society, one neighborhood at a time


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