What does empirical data and economists have to say about buying a home versus renting? The answer may surprise you.
ByThere tends to be this myopic view in California regarding the housing market. People forget the relatively young history of the housing market and the trials and tribulations associated with owing a property. Many people also suffer a dramatic case of confirmation bias to justify their house lusting ways. It might make paying that mortgage on the$700,000 crap shack much more palatable. In expensive places like California, the market has spoken and people are largely shifting to renting properties. The numbers are abundantly clear despite the house humping rhetoric for those trying to jack up the housing cheerleading. The cheerleading is getting incredibly loud with zero down mortgage in the Bay Area and with the Super Bowl ad showing us that you can get a mortgage with the “click of a button” like buying a café latte at Starbucks. Sounds reasonable to me that you are making the biggest purchase of your life over your iPhone in one second. But this speaks to the financial amnesia where people just want to get into markets at their peaks and are fully driven by emotion. So let us look at the pros and cons of buying versus renting…
