[727374]

It largely depends on the market you're in and timing. In SF Bay, things are extremely skewed toward renting right now because so many people are sitting on houses benefiting from ZIRP and locked-in prop taxes. It's probably 50-70% cheaper to rent on per month, even considering building equity. We own and are looking to rent a bigger place because it's much, much cheaper. I'm surprised more people aren't talking about how incredibly skewed things have gotten. The problem is there's a lot of "high-end" rental stock in our area, but it tends to be outdated.

NYTimes has an excellent calculator for informing your own rent-vs-buy decision based on factors like rent, purchase price, marginal tax rate, interest rate, etc.

edit: adding link - https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/upshot/buy-rent-cal...

[fragmede]

depends on where you see interest rates, housing prices and everything else going. If you think there's more correction to be had and interest rates will go down then don't buy but if you assume property prices keep appreciating and interest rates will go up then buying now is still better than later. In particular, in California, Prop 13 heavily favors buying now vs later.