Triangle Area Real Estate News & Information

Trulia.com one of the nations largest real estate web sites released their most recent quarterly report on the relative value of renting versus buying in the fifty largest cities in the United States. Here's a link to Trulia's Rent vs. Buy report.

In general they found when comparing rental prices to purchase prices on comparable 2 bedroom units that in fully 72% of the urban areas they looked at that it was highly likely to make more financial sense to buy rather than rent. In 8% of the cities they looked at it still made more sense to rent rather than buy and in the remaining 20% it was neutral. In other words not sure what you'll be doing or where you be in the next five years you'd be better of renting, thinking you'll be in the same place with a stable job, probably better of buying.

There's a lot of data in the report as well as a number of good samples showing the methodology used and the actual math behind their findings. Locally the Triangle (unfortunately simply listed as Raleigh) fell squarely into the category of better to buy than rent particularly for properties under $200,000

The scope of this report as it relates to our local Chapel Hill - Durham and Raleigh markets was a little limited but the findings are in line with the data I have been assembling privately based on information taken directly from the Triangle MLS system.

Trust Your Local Real Estate Source

While the Trulia index can give you a great general overview of what markets are better to buy or rent in, no one knows your local area as well as the people who live and work here. If you'd like more information about whether it's better to buy or rent in Durham, Chapel Hill, Cary, Hillsborough, and beyond, get in touch with me.