I ran into an interesting article about rent versus buy the article contained a calculator comparing renting versus buying that showed, what I thought, a realistic cost comparisons. The calculator let you change the the price and rents so I ran the information for Yellowstone County.
The housing costs I used were from the MLS going back to March 1st 2013, the information from the MLS showed that average and median home sold in Yellowstone county contained four bedrooms and two baths.
The average sales price since March 1st 2013 of $239,332 and the median (half selling for more, half selling for less) was $218,000.
For the rental information I used a data base that i compile to track the rental market. it shows that the average rental asking price for a four bedroom in Yellowstone county to be $1,404 the median rental amount is $1,395.
My basic take away is that it is reasonable to rent if your time frame for staying put is four years or less and if your time frame for staying put is five years or more the money side tilts towards the buying side and if the your time frame is ten years buying becomes very attractive from the financial side.
Hope you find this information interesting and useful.
Average Sales price comparison
Median Sales price comparison
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