The decision to buy a home or rent is a hotly debated topic—both a personal and a financial decision. On the financial side, however, Trulia has found that in the 100 largest metro areas, buying is significantly cheaper than renting.


On average, it’s 35% cheaper to buy than to rent, up from 33% last year. In some areas, particularly in the south, it’s over 50% cheaper to buy. However, in other areas, particularly California and Hawaii, buying a home may be a tougher call, since it’s only 16 to 27 percent cheaper to buy than to rent there.


To get to these figures, Trulia looked at homes listed on the site for rent or sale in March. They compared prices and rents for similar homes in the same neighborhood to get an apples-to-apples comparison.

Total homeownership costs include mortgage payments, taxes, closing costs, maintenance, and insurance. Total renting costs include renter’s insurance and security deposit. They also took into consideration the opportunity cost of using money to buy a home instead of investing it, and they assume a 3.87% rate on a 30-year fixed-rate loan. You can look at the full methodology PDF here.

Anyway, all things considered, they estimate that in the largest areas across the nation, buying is cheaper than renting over a seven-year period.

There are lots of variables to take into consideration, however, so you can play around with Trulia’s interactive rent vs. buy map to get a better picture for where you live.


Where HOA Fees Make Renting Cheaper Than Buying a Home | Trulia via Keeping Current Matters