Rent Versus Buy? New tool uses rent ratio to help you decide.

Tooll Submitted by: Sol Nasisi
Real Estate


A new tool from HeatMap.com combines rental and housing sales data to provide an indicator on whether it makes sense to rent or to buy.

 

Submitted: Jun 11, 2008    Views: 268    Comments: 0    Likes: 2   


Back in 2002, when I was convinced there was a housing bubble, it would have been really convenient to have a tool like what HeatMap.com has just introduced.  The Rent Ratio Heat Map calculated the ratio of rent over the listing price of homes in an area to determine whether it makes more sense to buy or to sell.  HotPads is able to do this because it has a database of over 150,000 rental and 1,500,000 property listings covering most major zip codes.

Below, I have included a heat map of Boston.

alt

The red areas have a low ratio of rents to home prices.  It makes sense to consider renting on those towns.

The blue areas have a high ratio of rents to home prices and it makes sense to consider buying.

For a good article on using the Rent Ratio, read the NY Times article.

To see what's happening in a zip code or city or state, check out the Rent ratio heatmaps on HeatMap.com.

 

 

 





2

Email this story Email to someone | Print Story Print Content | Add to reading list



Add Your Comments:

Your Name:

Spam protection control:


© Copyright 2008 Sol Nasisi All rights reserved. Sol Nasisi has granted BestCashCow.com, LLC non-exclusive rights to display this work on Bestcashcow.com.

Financial products of all nature bear inherent risks and this website is not a financial advisory service; it is a forum for users to share and to compare notes and observations on financial publications. The website provides, free of charge, the technical and logistical apparatus and the medium for users to share and to publish financial information and to comment on publications. As such, the website’s operator can not and does not take responsibility for information, observations or opinions of any sort or nature provided by third parties with whom it is not affiliated who use the website to publish, to comment or as a means of solicitation. Users are specifically warned against following any advice related to specific instruments, including, but not limited to, equity securities, that may be provided by other users directly on this site or on web pages to which other users have provided links on this site. BestCashCow.com can not and does not check or verify the qualifications and credentials of users who publish or comment on this site or on linked pages. Users should seek personalized advice from qualified professionals regarding all personal financial issues and evaluate the risks and applicability to their own circumstances of each financial product discussed regardless of who the publisher is or purports to be. Should you, through your use of this site, identify an individual or organization purporting to offer personalized advice, you bear all responsibility to ensure that the individual or organization has the qualifications that they may represent on the website, and that their advice is appropriate for your circumstances. On certain webpages, BestCashCow.com provides information related to rates on US-based savings accounts, CDs, short-term government bonds, and other US cash equivalent securities, also free of charge to internet users for their independent use. The accuracy of this information is not guaranteed, and the information, like all other information on this website, should not be construed to provide investment advice, nor to endorse a financial product of any sort.

© 2007 BestCashCow.com, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Privacy Policy.