What a crucial time to ponder one of the most ponderable thoughts in our society, rent or buy or is it buy or rent? I am going to give you the best reasons for each, in my opinion, up front, and then explore the pros and cons of each in depth. This exercise is meant to stimulate your own thoughts on the matter and help you decide which is best for you.
Before I get into the meat of the article I wish to give you a caveat: age is a major factor which I will not be dealing with in this dissertation. Young people and seniors have reasons to do one or the other based on where they are in their particular life cycle which really colors their outcome. . I just want you to realize this and try to examine this from an economic and life style perspective as one would if they were of the time in their life cycle where shelter and economic concerns are paramount.
The best reason to own (buy) a house is tax free accumulation coupled with the tax exempt sale of the property, for most Americans. Unlike most investments as your equity grows by either appreciation or amortization you are not liable for any tax and when you sell after owning your personal residence, and occupying it, for a minimum of two years your profit is sheltered for the first $250,000 for a single person or $500,000 for a married couple. The vast majority of Americans can leave their residence with up to 1/2 million dollars by simply living in their "home" and making the payments. This opportunity is unequaled in our current society. And you can do it over and over again every two years!
The number one reason to rent is carefree living. You neither have to worry monetarily or spend your time (time is money for some) fixing or repairing anything in your dwelling as the landlord, in most instances, is required to fix and repair anything that is wrong with the apartment or rental property. You will not have a "money pit" and if things get too bad you can pick up and move in a "nano second", compared to selling a house and moving on.
That's it, in my opinion, the best reason in either case to do one or the other. Now let us look at the supporting reasons to do one or the other.
House payments include principal, interest and also property taxes and fire, theft and liability insurance. Generally they are much higher than rents and only the interest and property tax is deductible. However, the deductibility brings the payment much closer to the rental figure. At most times rents are cheape than the total house payment but at this time because of the slowness of real estate sales, builders are pulling in their reigns and rental properties are showing some signs of shortages causing higher rental rates. Who would have figured that?
As far as taxes go some states give renter tax credits but they appear to be insignificant compared to the benefits from the interest and property tax deductions of owning.
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