Renting vs. buying in this economy?

Rona Ising: FiZazzle, thats exactly my husband's argument lol. The avg. house up here is 800,000 to a million for a 3 bedroom house-no exaggeration.

Katheryn Skrobacki: our landlords are really super friendly and we have rented this house that we currently live in for over 4 years.

Amina Motzer: Think of it this way: You buy a house - let's say you plop down $200K for it. In 5 years, you need to move. What if you can't sell your house? The economy is improving, there's no way to tell what's going to happen. Your home value could go down. Personally, house buying is great. It's freedom. However, it's not the end-all. In your situation, I would stick with renting. It stinks, but think about it: if you need a new furnace, it's not your money. Your oven breaks, you don't have to go out to buy a new one. If you suddenly need to move tomorrow, you could with relative ease compared to selling a home.==Edit==Especially in that case, I would just keep renting. Sure you! 're not building equity or credit, but you would lose all of that anyway the moment you had to sell a house. Personally, I can't even fathom spending that much on such a small house, and chances are when you say a million for a 3-bedroom house, that's a very SMALL 3-bedroom house. Yeah - I'm like you. I really crave owning a house, but with your situation, I would find a landlord that will let you paint as long as you paint it white before you leave....Show more

Frances Macky: Well looking at Real Estate "bubble" cycles, the last one was approx. 1991 to 2008 or 17 years.The real run up in in prices was really only the last 4-5 years, call it 13 years after the bubble burst in 1991. Following that example, you would possible see a new bubble really start to inflate in approx. 2021 but most of the money will be made in that bubble after 2021. In five years it will be 2017-18 so you probably won't see a huge increase in equity based on today's' prices, that wont happen t! ill after 2021. You probably won't make a "killing" on selling! the house before then. Again this is pure hypothesis not fact....Show more