Buy vs. rent calculation

Should you rent first or continue renting for awhile vs buying? Check out the rent vs. buy calculator to help you figure that out, but keep reading beyond the calculator because there are many factors beyond what it can tell you. I’ll also show you a heat map of the Nashville area based on rent ratios that indicate which areas make better financial sense to buy or to rent. Buying is usually better for the long-term, but the decision depends on your individual circumstances and plans. Let’s start the process by roughly comparing the costs of renting and buying an equivalent home here below. This calculator does many things, but click on the buy vs. rent tab to review this scenario.

A closer comparison

Renting involved the obvious recurring expense in the form of a rent check that can not be recouped. However, buying a house has multiple expenses to consider: closing costs, repairs, mortgage interest, property taxes, and mortgage principal. The down payment is usually a sizable chunk of change, so it’s a matter of where the investment might yield more results over time…in a home or the stock market. Right now…I say, good luck figuring that one out! Invested in one place means it’s not invested in the other. Sometimes, people are willing to pay a little more to buy as long as it’s not a considerable amount more to gain non-monetary benefits: getting settled and making a home, being able to paint without restrictions or being forced to repaint, etc.

What about the housing bubble burst?

Not long ago, homes all across the country were overvalued during the bubble. Now prices are slowly coming back down, which makes buying a more viable option to renters and those who have been sitting on the fence. Combine lowering prices with the lowest rates we’ve seen in years, and you’re in one of the best buying positions we’ve seen in a very long time. Sure, prices may go lower, but interest rates may not stay as low as they are now. If interest rates increase and home prices decrease, you’re buying power is probably the exact same as when prices were higher and rates were lower. To time both of these volatile elements perfectly together is nearly impossible and only hurts the economy more. As a homeowner, there are also the added benefits of building equity over time, writing off your mortgage interest (if you are “lucky” enough to have a mortgage), and hopefully getting one huge tax break upon selling.

Perhaps one of the biggest mistakes we can make is thinking of a house FIRST as a financial investment and SECOND as a home. This line of thinking is why our real estate market is suffering so much now. No, you may not time the market “perfect” by most people’s standards, but if your decision is based on life circumstances, (Do you have the money to buy a home and put down a sizable downpayment? Do you plan to move again in a year or two? Are you ready to settle in for awhile where you don’t have to worry so much about real estate?) you will be more likely to make the right decision for yourself, your family, and the economy as a whole.

Rent ratios

Again, even though it may seem (and us real estate agents tell you) that it’s better to buy, it may not be so in your specific area. Look at two similar properties, one for rent and one for sale. Divide the sales price by the annual rent to get the rent ratio. As a general rule, a rent ratio above 20 means that the monthly costs of ownership well exceed the cost of renting. At recent mortgage rates, for example, a $500,000 house would typically bring monthly expenses of about $3,000 (taking into account taxes, repairs, a typical down payment and the mortgage deduction). When the rent ratio is 20, that same house could be rented for only about $2,000 a month.

While the above is meant to help you understand how rent ratios are calculated, you don’t have to do the work all yourself. Hotpads, a real estate search engine of properties for rent and for sale, has taken the rent ratio concept and added to the formula to get an accurate ratio for specific areas. The result is an easy to use heat map that will allow you to see the rent ratios in the Nashville area by a color-coded key. Red (above 20) will mean it makes better sense to rent. If an area is red, it might mean a housing correction is on its way or needed. Blue definitely indicates you’re better off to buy. The colors in between probably indicate you’re in a better situation to buy, as long as you are not above a 20 rent ratio. So review the map below to see a Nashville map with surrounding areas to show you where the rent ratios indicate it’s prime to rent and where they indicate it’s prime to buy. Remember the following as a general guide:

• RED = Rent
• ORANGE = Rent
• BLUE = Buy
• GREEN = The costs might be very similar (Buy)
• YELLOW = It might be a slight premium to own (Buy)

North of Nashville/Middle Tennessee map:

An area not depicted in this image is Clarksville, which is colored blue on rental ratio heat maps.

Central Nashville/Middle Tennessee map:

South of Nashville/Middle Tennessee map:

Summary of results

To summarize the results, it looks like most of Middle Tennessee is positioned where buying is probably better than renting and may actually be less expensive than renting in the same area, in several cases. However, a few areas might still be headed for a real estate pricing correction due to the gap between housing prices and rental prices. Those areas where you might be better to rent before buying (based on Hotpads current analysis) are Gallatin, a small part of SouthEast Nashville, Fairview, parts of Thompsons Station, area east of Mount Juliet (Lebanon, etc.), and right around the Nashville (Bellevue)/Brentwood/Franklin border on the west side. Small parts of all three of those areas would be less expensive to rent. Gray areas (defined as yellow areas) might be Mount Juliet and a large portion of Franklin. These two areas might be slightly more expensive in housing costs, but the gap is not by too much. It might be worth the extra price for the benefits of ownership, creating equity, and settling into a home.

If you’re reading this post much later (6 mos+) than it was updated, you may want to go to Hotpads directly to see the most current recommendations. Got specific questions or comments? I’d love to hear them through your comments below!