Word: renters
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Four years ago, Michael Choe appeared in the pages of this magazine for doing something spectacular: choosing to be a renter. At a time when real estate riches were Topic A ("Home $weet Home," read the TIME cover line), the engineer, from Sacramento, Calif., decided to sell his house and move with his wife and baby boy into a rental. "Compared to owning, rent is cheap," he said back then...
Sure, it's easy to toss around reasons it's always better to be a homeowner (that mortgage-interest deduction) or it's always better to be a renter (no property taxes, and who wants to fix his own garbage disposal?). The more complicated truth is that at certain times it makes more sense to be one or the other. (See high-end homes that won't sell...
...everywhere. At TIME's request, Economy.com ran the numbers for 54 metro areas and compared their current price-to-rent ratios to what their ratios have been over the past 15 years. The result: in 21 cities, renting still looks to be the better bargain. Among the renter-friendly outposts are Baltimore; Raleigh and Charlotte, N.C.; Salt Lake City; San Antonio; Trenton, N.J.; Philadelphia; Honolulu; Seattle; and Portland...
Vinny and Karla Trovato moved to Boise at the end of last year but only by finding a renter to live in their Las Vegas home. Now they live in the suburb of Eagle. The neighborhood, with 11 decorated model homes and four sold houses, sits like a ghost town; both the building and the selling have ground to a halt. "We were supposed to have another neighbor, but his financing didn't come through," says Vinny. It's not the neighborhood full of life he had imagined his children growing up in. "Everybody just pushed the pause button," says...
...house bought for $300,000 in 2005 is now only worth $200,000, the government is not taking the owner off the hook for eventually paying the entire principle even if the house does not reclaim its higher value. That essentially will turn many homeowners into the equivalent of renters, people living in a residence which may have absolutely no ongoing value for them. The difference is that a renter does not have to fix his own toilet...