Despite rising prices, buying a home makes more sense than paying increasingly high rents in more than half of the U.S. Buying a median-priced home is more affordable than renting a three-bedroom property in 240 of 447—or 54 percent—of U.S. counties analyzed, according to a new report released by ATTOM Data Solutions, a real estate data firm.
Renting a three-bedroom property requires an average of nearly 39 percent of weekly wages across the 447 counties analyzed for the report. The least affordable markets for renting are: Marin County, Calif. (where it takes 79.5% of average wages to rent); Spotsylvania County, Va. (75.5%); Honolulu County, Hawaii (71.9%); Sonoma County, Calif. (67.6%); and Kings County, N.Y. (67.4%).
But a rentals are still often a better deal in highly populated areas. “Although buying is still more affordable than renting in the majority of U.S. housing markets, that majority is shrinking as home price appreciation continues to outpace rental growth in most areas,” says Daren Blomquist, vice president at ATTOM Data Solutions. “Renting has clearly become the lesser of two housing affordability evils in many major population centers, with renting more than affordable than buying in 76 percent of counties that have a population of 1 million or more.”
Source: ATTOM Data Solutions
