According to a recent survey by Trulia – despite the housing market troubles plaguing the US in recent years, it is still cheaper to buy property than to rent in America’s 100 largest metropolitan areas.
Article written by The Overseas Guides Company
In the past 12 months we have witnessed the asking price of houses in the US rise by seven per cent nationally. This far outpaces rent rates which only increased by 3.2 per cent however; it is low mortgage rates of 3.5 per cent that have kept the housing market in check.
The survey revealed that buying a home is on average 44 per cent cheaper than renting when all transaction costs, taxes and the like are taken into consideration.
As is to be expected, the affordability of home ownership varies quite significantly across the States. For example, it is as much as 70 per cent cheaper to buy than rent in Detroit yet only 19 per cent cheaper to do so in San Francisco. In fact, when taking into account a mortgage rate of 5.5 per cent, buying is still cheaper than renting in every market with the exception of San Francisco and in other areas like New York, New Jersey and Hawaii are a close call.
Looking ahead to the rest of 2013, it has been predicted that home prices should rise faster than rents, and as the economy improves, mortgage rates are expected to rise. This means that buying could soon return to its rightful spot as the most expensive option – so act now!
Anyone on the verge of buying a property in the USA, who will need to transfer Sterling to a dollar account to pay for their purchase, should consider using Smart Currency Exchange, as they consistently offer better exchange rates than banks. For more information on this, visit the Currency Zone or download Smart’s free report.
To understand the full step-by-step process to buying a property in America, collect The Overseas Guides Company’s ‘USA Property Buying Guide’
The views and comments herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of Rightmove Overseas, Rightmove Group Ltd or Rightmove Plc