Renting vs. Owning Condos

Although some renters believe that renting is "maintenance free," they are actually paying for maintenance in their rent - whether they need it or not.  Renting offers you no equity, no tax benefit, and no protection against regular rent increases.  If you're paying rent, you're really just paying someone else's mortgage.  Let's compare: In this example, it might still cost $300.00 more per month to live in a condo than to rent. But when you consider that property you OWN appreciates, but property you RENT doesn't, and when you consider how rents are likely to grow over time, we think you will find a great advantage to buying even if there is a jump in net monthly cost.

In fact, if you want, you can ask me to see if we can't get you into ownership for NO increase over your current rent. I can't promise it, but I certainly would like to sit with you and see what makes sense.

We can't, by the way, make any exact comparisons here because we don't know your current rent, what kind of mortgage you would qualify for, and what type of purchase would equate to your current level of living condition. We use the figures you see above only to illustrate the concept that buying may be more affordable than you think.

Notes

•·         This approximate Payment/Cost Comparison is based on the assumption that you have a 30% top federal tax bracket and that first-year interest and taxes are practically almost 100% deductible (assessments, by the way, are NOT deductible).  We recommend consulting with an accountant or tax expert to see what your exact tax savings would be. 

•·         The payment shown here may be high or low for the type of property you would buy, but in the Chicago area  many first time buyers are able to buy a condominium with a Principle and Interest payment of no more than $1,500.00/month. You would, of course, need to sit with both me as your Realtor® and a lender to see what for a given purchase price your monthly payment would be.

Visit our website to read more about Chicago multi-family homes.  Click here if you are interested in selling or buying multi-units with two or more flats.