Rent vs Buy Assignment

Do some research to compare renting vs buying a house. (Compare 2 years with 7 years of living in the same home one as a renter, one as an owner). Using any of the many sites available (rmls.com, http://www.zillow.com/, etc) to search for homes for sale. Find a home that you feel you would like to live in once you are settled into your ideal career. Unless you already own a home or have a very high net worth, please limit yourself to $400,000.

Give a brief description of the house:

What is the listing price?

How much are the property taxes?

(if the site does not list them go to http://www.portlandmaps.com/)

Now find a comparable home for rent. You want to find similar specifications so that you can compare apples to apples. (Zillow may list possible rent cost on some homes)

How much is the monthly rent?

Using the Rent vs Buy Calculator of Freddie Macs site compare renting vs buying a house using the figures above.

http://calculators.freddiemac.com/response/lf-freddiemac/calc/home10

Other factors youll need to know.

Monthly renters insurance: Assume $15 a month

Yearly rent increase: Assume 3%

Home appreciation: Assume 5%

Your savings interest rate: Find this out from your bank (Usually pretty low)

Your state and fed. tax rate: Determine this using your salary projections (worksheet 7)

Loan amount: Assume that you put 20% down

Interest rate: Find out the current 30-year interest rate (bankrate.com is easy)

Use the origination and other closing charges they fill in.

Yearly property insurance: $500

Selling costs: Assume 6%

Calculate results then answer the following questions -

Will owning saving you money? If so how much?

What is the difference in payment of renting vs buying (at 2 years vs. 7 years)?

What are your estimated tax savings?

How much equity will you build in the period (2 years vs. 7 years)?

What else should you be considering for this life decision?