203: Why the financial data supports home ownership over renting

Selling Greenville

A debate rages on social media these days about whether it's better to rent where you live or buy and be a homeowner. The reality is that in most places (including Greenville, at least for now) the monthly costs are cheaper if you're renting, but this doesn't take into account other important parts of the discussion, most significantly, real estate value appreciation. Renters don't benefit from appreciation, whereas homeowners do, but renters can take the savings they are pocketing from renting and invest that in other things to potentially make more money than a homeowner would via mere appreciation. That model works in theory, but how does it work in practice? Let's analyze the data, courtesy of Aziz Sunderji, to determine what conditions would make it better to rent your home vs. what conditions would make it better to be a homeowner.
Access to Sunderji's article, for those curious, is here: https://www.home-economics.us/p/buy-or-rent
As always, if you have any questions or comments (or, of course, need a realtor), feel free to reach out to Stan McCune directly by phone/text at [phone] or by email at [e-mail].