Quote:
Originally Posted by Table 5
I think if anyone is planning to live in a place for 2-3 years minimum and has the down payment, you'd be a fool to rent instead of buying.
Our mortgage condo fees are $300 cheaper than what we would be paying for rent...that is if we could even find something like this. It's pretty ridiculous how insane the prices for rentals are these days....and I don't really see that changing soon.
|
That's surprising to me. I was living in a condo downtown that would've cost me about $300-$400 more than renting. I have now moved into a modern 1 bed + den condo in the inner city.
For the place I'm in now, the mortgage + tax would be about $1200/month.. condo fees are just under $400/month (0.45/sq ft for an 850 sq ft unit). I'm currently renting the place for $1400 and have seen identical units advertised for $1300. Once you add in maintenance costs, I'm paying a lot less than what I would've paid to own this place.
The owners (my landlords) are likely cash flow positive as they've owned this unit for a long time, so they likely bought it for well under what it's worth now, and they also likely remortgaged at a lower monthly payment. But to say anyone staying in a place for 2-3 years will make out financially ahead by buying instead of renting is an inaccurate generalization. There are properties in which this is true, but there are many properties where renting for 3 years will put you further ahead unless the market goes way up.