Do the math in some U.S. metropolitan areas, and paying a mortgage, taxes and insurance on a home may be a better deal than renting, a Wall Street Journal analysis of 28 large cities found.
That does not mean renters are running to buy, however. Their reluctance to take on debt and bankers' relutance to loan are holding back that option, the newspaper said.
"It's one of the most striking developments of the housing downturn," Paul Dales, an economist at Capital Economics, told the Journal's Nick Timiraos. "The initial building blocks for a recovery are in place, but the legacy of the recession is really preventing households from taking advantage."
According to analysis done for the Journal on data from several sources, the cities where buying looks better on paper than renting are:
- Atlanta
- Chicago
- Detroit
- Jacksonville
- Las Vegas
- Miami
- Minneapolis
- Orlando
- Phoenix
- Sacramento
- St. Louis
- Tampa-St. Petersburg
