On Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 9:22 PM, Dan M > On the whole, up on the north side of Houston, it's cheaper per sq. ft. per > year to own than to rent.
Dallas seems to have had little, if any, real estate bubble. It has the lowest peak to current price decline (9%) of any of the 20 cities tracked by the Case-Shiller index: http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2009/02/case-shiller-house-prices-decline.html If Houston is similar to Dallas, then it probably does not make sense to talk about a bubble in Houston. Nevertheless, it would have been more interesting to make your price to rent comparison a few years ago. As you can see in the link I posted previously, the price to rent ratios in the country as a whole have come down a lot recently, making the buy or rent decision closer. The ratios appear to still be somewhat elevated, but only by perhaps 10 or 20% above a long-run trend. I took a look at realtor.com for Houston (although I am not familiar with the area) and it looks like a typical single family home, about 2000 sq ft, rents for about $1000 per month. A similar home costs about $120K, so a 30 yr 6% mortgage with 20% down would be around $600/mo. So anyone looking to live in the area I was browsing, for more than a year or two, would probably want to buy. Especially considering the government's ill-conceived tax credit for first-time buyers this year (heads up to anyone interested: it ends Dec 1, 2009 not December 31). _______________________________________________ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
