Rent vs. Buy Visualization of Top 50 Cities
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Rent vs. Buy Visualization of Top 50 Cities
1–10 of 151 posts
Re: Rent vs. Buy Visualization of Top 50 Cities
#2I was hoping to see how affordable it is to buy in different cities around the world. Unfortunately, this data covers 50 cities in just one country.
It should really be the "Top 50 Cities in the US". The US-centric nature of websites like this is even more irritating when they don't state it up front.
Re: Rent vs. Buy Visualization of Top 50 Cities
#3"...of Top 50 [American] Cities"
It's odd seeing lists like this that focus only on a specific country, ignoring important neighbors. Take Toronto, for example. That city is more important than 40-45 of the cities listed, but since it's a few miles North of some border, it gets completely ignored.
Why not focus on a geographic region instead?
Re: Rent vs. Buy Visualization of Top 50 Cities
#4Cleveland is included, but not Pittsburgh? Someone's a Jets fan...
On a technical note, the information in the hover bubble is mis-aligned; the right side is a space below the left side, at least on this older version of Firefox.
Re: Rent vs. Buy Visualization of Top 50 Cities
#5I was hoping to see how affordable it is to buy in different cities around the world. Unfortunately, this data covers 50 cities in just one country. It should really be the "Top 50 Cities in the US". The US-centric nature of websites like this is even more irritating when they don't state it up front.
Trulia's Q1 2011 Rent vs. Buy Index provides guidance to help you make a smart decision on whether it is better to rent or buy in each of America's 50 largest cities by population.
Re: Rent vs. Buy Visualization of Top 50 Cities
#6"...of Top 50 [American] Cities" It's odd seeing lists like this that focus only on a specific country, ignoring important neighbors. Take Toronto, for example. That city is more important than 40-45 of the cities listed, but since it's a few miles North of some border, it gets completely ignored. Why not focus on a geographic region instead?
The border likely affects the availability and format of the data needed to make the calculation.
Re: Rent vs. Buy Visualization of Top 50 Cities
#7The concentration of high-population areas in California does some strange things to the map when the city circles are sized by population.
The positions don't even seem to be constant. If you sort by something else, the circle move around, but they don't necessarily move back to the same place.
I have nothing interesting to add about the content of this site; I was too befuddled by its presentation.
Re: Rent vs. Buy Visualization of Top 50 Cities
#8Very very cool!
I'm wondering why they chose 15 / 20 as the cutoff ratios though. I'm a licensed real estate agent in NYC and I've helped a number of clients make purchases where it was actually cheaper to buy than rent (usually a studio or 1BR, or outside Manhattan).
It seems like you can finance a home purchase these days at 5% or less on 30-year fixed. Add in the mortgage interest tax deduction and you are really borrowing at 3.00% (assuming your marginal tax is 40% including state / local taxes, which would be true of anyone buying a $1.3M 2br as referenced in the site).
That seems to justify a break-even ratio of about 33, not 16 or 20. Of course, you do have to add back HOA dues / coop maintenance + property taxes, and the nasty transaction costs for buying and selling. That is somewhat tempered by your rent (and property values) going up with inflation while your mortgage payments are fixed. Therefore, all the usual disclaimers apply that you need to be willing to stay there and own the property for quite some time.
EDIT: clarified that 5% rates are for 30 year fixed mortgages; 15-year amortizations would get 4.25% or so, changing by the day.
EDIT2: The tax deduction is LESS good in other metro areas. When I used to live in Redmond, WA, my marginal rate was not 40% (there is no state income tax in WA and houses are much cheaper). Also far more subtle but often ignored, in Washington most renters would take a standard deduction and only home-owners would itemize their deductions. Itemizing mortgage interest means you lose out on the standard deduction. In NYC, just about everyone itemizes because state / local income tax is already compelling enough to do so, therefore almost all the mortgage interest is deductible except for the amount subject to Pease provisions.
Re: Rent vs. Buy Visualization of Top 50 Cities
#9The statistics on this infographic are misleading. It does not cost 200,000 to buy a house in San Diego or San Jose!
Maybe the average for downtown San Jose and San Diego are close to 200k, but that is the poorest area of both cities and not what should be used to compare. The green bubble on the point for San Diego should be much much smaller in radius(like miniscule), otherwise you think the 200k number refers to the entire city!
People should not be using this to make informed decisions (obviously).
Re: Rent vs. Buy Visualization of Top 50 Cities
#10"...of Top 50 [American] Cities" It's odd seeing lists like this that focus only on a specific country, ignoring important neighbors. Take Toronto, for example. That city is more important than 40-45 of the cities listed, but since it's a few miles North of some border, it gets completely ignored. Why not focus on a geographic region instead?
The border likely affects the availability and format of the data needed to make the calculation.
That makes sense. It would still be nice for the title to reflect that, though, rather than the ambiguous and misleading "Top 50 Cities" that it is right now.