Buying Versus Renting Gap Narrows Slightly

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SANTA CLARA, CA—For many markets the reality has been that renting was cheaper than home ownership thanks to years of skyrocketing home prices. Now, however, the combination of rising rents, lower mortgage rates and home prices that are beginning to moderate is making purchasing a home more attractive in more of the nation’s largest metros, according to realtor.com’s newly-released quarterly Rent vs. Buy report.

The report, which analyzed the cost of buying versus renting in 593 US counties in the fourth quarter of 2019, found that it was cheaper to buy than rent in 16% of the counties with populations of 100,000 or more, up from 12% a year earlier.