Re:Toronto Condos: Should you rent or buy?
by kazinator on Wednesday June 03, 2015 @01:46PM
(#9654466)
> Sometimes renting might be a better deal than buying.
As a life-long strategy, or short-term only?
Buying isn't "sometimes". There is usually a commitment there. You'd never say, "renting isn't looking so good right now; I think I will buy for six or seven months and see how renting is looking then".
There are several factors which need to be taken into account, such as mortgage interest payments, opportunity cost of downpayment, property tax, tax deductions, property appreciation, etc. Khan Academy has an interesting video on this topic: https://www.khanacademy.org/economics-finance-domain/core-fi...
PS: Sure, if your property appreciates by a lot you'll make a large return. But what if it deprecates? People being overly optimistic about property appreciations were part of the reason/most affected by the housing bubble.