Buying Is Now 26.3% Cheaper Than Renting in the US!

The results of the latest Rent vs. Buy Report from Trulia show that homeownership remains cheaper than renting, with a traditional 30-year fixed rate mortgage, in 98 of the 100 largest metro areas in the United States.

In the six years that Trulia has conducted this study, this is the first time that it was cheaper to rent than buy in any of the metropolitan areas.

It’s no surprise, however, that those two metros are San Jose and San Francisco, CA, where median home prices have jumped to over $1 million dollars this year. Home values in Wasatch County have risen 29% in the last year, while rents have remained relatively unchanged.

For the 98 metros where homeownership wins out, 97 of them show a double-digit advantage when buying. The range is an average of 2.0% less expensive in Honolulu (HI), all the way up to 48.9% in Detroit (MI), and 26.3% nationwide!

Below is a map of the 100 metros that were studied. The darker the blue dot on the metro, the cheaper it is to buy there.

In order to calculate the true cost of renting vs. buying, Trulia includes all assumed renting costs, including one-time costs (like security deposits), and compares them to the monthly costs of owning a home (insurance, mortgage payments, taxes, and maintenance) including one-time costs (down payments, closing costs, sale proceeds). They also assume that households stay in their home for seven years, put down a 20% down payment, and take out a 30-year fixed rate mortgage. The full methodology is included with the study results here.

Below is a chart created with the data from the last six years of the study, showing the impact of the median home price, rental price, and 30-year fixed rate interest rate used to calculate the ‘cheaper to buy’ metric.

In 2016, when buying was 41.3% less expensive than renting, the average mortgage rate was the driving force behind the difference. Rates this year are the highest they have been in six years which has narrowed the gap, all while home price appreciation has also been driven up by a lack of homes for sale.

Cheryl Young, Trulia’s Chief Economist, had this to say,

“One point deserves emphasizing: The ultra-costly San Francisco Bay Area is not a harbinger for the nation as a whole. While renting may outweigh buying in San Jose and San Francisco, it is unlikely that renting will tip the scales nationally anytime soon.”

Bottom Line

Homeownership provides many benefits beyond the financial ones. If you are one of the many renters out there who would like to evaluate your ability to buy this year, let’s get together to find your dream home.

FREE HOME EVALUATION….$495 VALUE

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From: Paula Higman

890 Main Street 5-101

Park City, UT 84060

435-602-8228 Call or Text today.

FREE HOME EVALUATION….$495 VALUE

A SURVIVAL GUIDE FOR MOVING WITH PETS

One of the most stressful changes for people is moving, and for animals, it is no different. According to statistics published by the Humane Society of the United States, 79.7 million households have at least one pet. This is a survival guide for some of the most common stress-induced issues furry family members may face during a move.

Canines
According to the vets at Pet MD, dogs generally tend to internalize their emotional pain, and stress reactions usually manifest in tummy troubles and/or a decrease in appetite. They may also become isolated and sleep more than usual.

To help relieve some of the stress associated with an impending move, Jodi Frediani, wrote in her article that the key to managing a dog in a stressful situation is balance and understanding. If you need to make changes that affect your pet, like doing doggie daycare to allow more home showing flexibility, you should try to ease them into the transition, by maybe doing a few hours a day until the dog can acclimate. At the same time, keep everything else as close to the same as possible, like feeding times, brand of food, and the amount of time you spend together.


Felines
Felines are nothing like dogs. If they ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy. Cats have a harder time with stress and change than the average dog. Loud noise from workers preparing the home for market, strange people walking through the home and being confined to certain areas of the house are all stressors and could be the first sign of impending kitty apocalypse.

Pam Johnson-Bennett, a cat behaviorist, said that when getting ready to move with your feline family members, try to take household changes slowly. Repainting, new carpet installation, moving a litter box, and a busy open house all within the same week is just too much for most cats to process at once. Limit your changes to things that are absolutely necessary, and during this period do not change brands of food, litter, or the location of food, water, or litter boxes. Make sure kitty has a safe place to hide, and do not remove scratching posts or cat towers if your cat regularly uses them.


Pocket pets
One out of every 25 households has some form of “pocket pet,” the term used to classify small furry creatures like chinchillas, ferrets, sugar gliders, and rabbits. These little guys can also get stressed out from changes in their environment. When going through a move, sometimes our pets may get less attention due to the new demands on our time. Even though a pocket pet may not need to be walked, a lack of attention to cleaning their habitat or handling them can stress their immune systems. Daily handling can catch a small problem before it gets out of hand.


Moving can be stressful to our pets, but taking some of the above precautions will help everyone have a safe and comfortable move into your new home.

"Out-Of-State" Sellers Must Now Collect and Pay State Sales Taxes

The U.S. Supreme Court has overturned 26 years of precedent to rule that a state may compel out-of-state, or “remote,” sellers to collect sales tax from consumers who make purchases within the state. See South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc., No. 17-494, 585 U.S. ---, 2018 WL 3058015 (June 21, 2018). The Court ruled that a state may do so even where the seller does not have a “physical presence” in the state, such as employees or tangible assets. Although the decision by its terms applies to any “out-of-state” seller, the ruling is squarely aimed at online retailers, who previously reaped a competitive advantage at the expense of brick-and-mortar businesses by avoiding the costs of complying with state sales tax collection and payment laws, as well as a perceived price advantage over brick-and-mortar businesses.




Unless there is a provision in a tax treaty that exempts citizens of a contracting party from local taxation, sellers that are not based in the United States will also be subject to state sales tax collection and payment obligations on sales made into the United States.

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