There is a lot of focus lately regarding the fact that it is less expensive to buy your home rather than rent in San Diego county.

In San Diego Country it now makes more sense to buy your home than rent one for monetary reasons.  We’d like to share this article from the Business Insider:

Southern California Housing Market

In the areas around San Diego, the all-in cost of renting a house is more expensive than buying a house.North County Times (via Calculated Risk):Monthly payments on a house are now cheaper than monthly rents on a similar house in most of North San Diego and Southwest Riverside counties, according to an analysis of county-supplied and Realtor data by the North County Times….”I don’t think this has ever happened before,” said G.U. Krueger, a principal economist for HousingEcon.com. “It’s a function of the huge housing price collapse which has left a lot of people in the lurch.”Or, as Carlsbad real estate agent Tyson Lund put it: “This is crazy.”

This inversion of the costs of renting and buying a house is something that’s garnered a fair amount of buzz over the last several months.

Warren Buffett has called buying distressed properties, and renting them out his #1 business idea.

In a recent interview, Paul McCulley said he was intrigued by Southern California real estate, in part because it’s so out of favor..

One think to think about, however, is that if a homebuyer assumes that the value of said home will continue to fall after purchase (a reasonable assumption, given that the direction of housing still appears to be going down) then it makes perfect sense that rent would be more expensive, since the homedweller is not risking a monthly loss of equity.

Meanwhile, other measures of housing affordability, such as the NAR’s index that compares the price of a home to income is surging off the charts.

Of course, a major impediment to a housing rebound is credit and mortgage availability.

A lot of people who are renters can’t make the jump to homeownership since they can’t get a mortgage.

As this recent chart from Nomura showed, inability to get a mortgage is a growing reason why realtors are seeing deals fall through.

Nomura

But as the jobs market starts to creep back — something that is happening the fastest in these ex-bubble areas — this impediment should begin to dissipate.

It is a crazy scenario – it is less expensive to buy a home than rent.

If you are looking to move and contemplating renting or owning your next home, The Lawhead Team would like to share some helpful information to help you decide.

A few years ago, it was less expensive to rent in Southern California than to own.  However, the tables have turned and owning is now less expensive than renting.  Not only can you spend less money a month owning your house than renting, but it has become and investors market as new property owners can finally break even and sometimes even have a positive cash flow from a Southern California property.

The North County Times reported that San Diego has now become cheaper to own than rent and this scenario is being repeated among other major metropolitan areas across the nation.  While the falling home prices are bad news for already underwater homes, new home buyers have a once in a lifetime opportunity to grab great deals on foreclosures.  The only snafu is that lending conditions are extremely tightened but if you can make it happen, interest rates are at an all time low.

With interest rates lingering around 4.0 percent and other factors combined, an opportunity has been created to get a better deal than renters after the down payment is paid.  For investors, since rental prices are up it is a great time to buy and investment property.  Not only will you most likely at least break even, with home prices at an all time low your investment will most likely continue to go up in price.  Read our article “Home Prices On The Rise”.

Take advantage of low housing prices and once in a lifetime low interest rates and own your home.  The Lawhead Team is on your side and have the knowledge you need on your side when looking at buying a home.