Yes, but there is also the opportunity cost of your downpayment, the transaction costs of getting into and out of a house, and maintenance. Oh man, maintenance.
Ref - transaction costs. You have to figure it will cost you around ~8% of the value of a property to both get into and out of it. This does not include the cost of movers. With a rental your transaction costs might be $50 for the apartment application fee.
I wish - I'm currently renting a house for 1200 pounds/month(so...1900 USD per month) and the agency took $1000 just to take the property off the market("admin fee" - non-returnable, doesn't go towards the deposit, it's just money down the drain really), then 1 month rent as deposit, and 1 month rent in advance. So really, I spent nearly $6k just to start renting a place.
I'm really considering a mortgage, but don't have money for the downpayment. Our mortgage payments would be actually less than what we pay for rent now.
Re:Is it better to buy or rent?
by fluidcruft on Friday June 19, 2015 @11:32AM
(#9745439)
Rent pays maintenance costs, too it's just forcibly amortized and externalized. Higher-density housing like apartments and condos do have scale efficiencies reduce per-unit/occupant maintenance costs. But the difference between renting and buying is somewhat apples to oranges if you're comparing renting an apartment to buying a house.
There are places where this doesn't make sense, and there are times where it absolutely doesn't make sense, but present day is a lot different. My anecdote of paying less (or slightly more) in mortgage + associated versus rent is not all that uncommon these days.
The real hidden cost, if you ask me, is the way it changes your sense of mobility.