Buying a home always beats renting over the long term. That said, there are good reasons to rent instead of buying and those reasons are still true today.

If you are planning to move within the next 5 years--or aren’t even sure that you WON’T move within 5 years--it’s probably just as safe to rent, because the housing market is like the stock market in its cycles: real estate values go up & down on average about every 7 years. The swing in each cycle varies (we seem to be in a longer & more vigorous upturn right now), but you can take to the bank that there WILL be a down cycle at some point in the future. And long term, despite the short term swings, real estate values always increase over time.

Another reason to rent is if you don’t have the wherewithal to make a responsible purchase that you can live with financially. One of the biggest causes of the 2008-2012 Great Recession was that lenders dreamt up ways to make loans to unsuspecting buyers/borrowers. Zero down payment and stated-income (not what you actually earned) qualification were not uncommon.

Of course, another reason to not buy is if you foresee an imminent downturn in housing values. But that’s not the case today. Economists, almost to a person, do not expect home prices to fall, but instead to increase less steeply over the next few years. Barring a development that has yet to materialize, housing values appear to be sound.

So, if you’re not sure you’ll be in the same community in the next five years or you clearly aren’t prepared to take on the responsibility of a mortgage, renting is your best option. Otherwise, you really should consider buying a home. The friendly, experienced, professional brokers at Tupper’s Team stand ready to help you with that decision.