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Buy vs. Rent Comparison
By Stephen Roberts | January 13, 2009
Many people ask why should I buy a home when I can rent hassle free.
In order to answer that question you have to take a look at all of the advantage of home ownership vs the advantages of renting.
The most obvious advantages to renting especially in today’s market is the fear of being upside down on your home. Most experts feel, and I agree, that if we are not yet at the bottom, then we are at least very close. I just don’t see how homes can continue to drop much further with prices already well below $100 per square foot in certain price ranges. Other renting advantages include; little or no maintenance or responsibility and it is much easier if you decide to move.
Obvious buying advantages include; a sense of community, stability, and security; freedom to change decor and landscaping to your own tastes; not being dependent on your landlord to maintain and fix issues that come up in your home. Possibly the biggest advantage of home ownership is the property building up equity over time. With these issues going on in today’s market many individuals are worried about this not happening any longer. Historically homes have gained an average of 5% since 1940. With the big run up on prices in the early 2000′s, it was inevitable that home values had to go back down. It would be a great surprise if we did not see them start to appreciate back to the normal rates within the next couple of years.
Other considerations that need to be thought out are; home owners get large tax benefits included from owning a home, renters have no control over rent increases and finally there is no fear of being evicted if you own a home. In today’s market many renters have found out the hard way that the home they were living in was in the process of being foreclosed upon and were given very short notice that they had to vacate the property. Sometimes they were given as little as 72 hours to find a new place to live. This has created another hardship for today’s renter.
There are even several new tax advantages for first time buyers or people who have not owned a primary residence within the past 3 years. This tax break allows you to receive a $7500 tax credit that needs to be repaid over several years.
As you can see, there are many reasons why someone would choose to buy rather then rent. With the prices that we have in this market, and the current historically low interest rates of today, there has never been a better time to buy then right now. These factors won’t be in place forever and this is the right time to jump in the market.
If you have any interest in finding some of the best buys on the market give us a call at 702-739-4392.
Topics: Henderson Nevada Homes, Las Vegas Nevada Real Estate, Mortgage Rates, Summerlin Nevada Real Estate | No Comments »