Earn What You Spend

I live in NYC.  I am accordingly obsessed with real estate.  But what I compulsively obsess over is not the newest development, nor the most recent astronomical price at some starchitect’s building. Rather, it’s a simple question: am I better of buying or renting? 

Felix has an interesting article about it this morning - with lower interest rates and falling housing prices, the scales are tipping in favor of buying. But not completely - and there is a real homeownership myth in our country.  

That is, you are not always better off buying a home rather than renting. 

I’m going to be writing a number of posts on this topic, so for now, I’d suggest spending some time with this incredible calculator from the NYTimes. Plug in your current situation and see what the outcomes are.  They might just surprise you.