With no end in sight to South Florida’s scorching housing market, real estate economists said this week that it makes more sense in many cases to rent a home until the fracas subsides.
The caveat to the idea that leasing is preferable to purchasing is that money saved by not paying for home maintenance, association fees, insurance and taxes should be invested, and not spent on “beer and cookies,” said Florida Atlantic University economist Ken Johnson.
“On average, renting and reinvesting is winning in most parts of the country, but not by a tremendous amount,” said Johnson, who issues a quarterly report on renting vs. buying in conjunction with Florida International University. “The cost of owning is going up faster than renting but that doesn’t mean that either is inexpensive at this point.”
