Is it better to rent or buy a home? It’s a simple question; however, there are many factors involved. Your situation is different from a great number of people. Income and age play a role in answering that question. Interest rates and location also play a role. Near term and long term goals have to be taken into consideration. Will you be in the area for a year or two? Or will you plant your feet for a decade or more? Numerous organizations—Freddie Mac, Forbes, and others—have studied this age-old question.

Let’s take a deeper look at the findings of Freddie Mac and Forbes.

Current Surveys and Research

Freddie Mac—otherwise known as the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation—commissioned Harris Poll to conduct a survey of people in the housing market. The survey was conducted online from August 13-15, 2018. This is the second such survey that was conducted this year (the first being from January 30-February 1, 2018). This recent survey took the pulse of 4,040 people over the age of 18. It also included 1,059 renters. Let’s read some of the results.

“According to the survey, 78 percent of renters believe renting is more affordable than owning – up a stunning 11 points from just six months ago in February 2018. This is the case even as the majority of renters (66 percent) reported difficulty affording their rent at some point over the past two years. The survey found nearly 9 in 10 renters employed in the essential workforce, such as health care and education, had significant difficulty affording the rent over the past two years.”

The fact that most renters believe mortgages are most expensive shouldn’t be surprising. What is surprising, however, is the fact that this belief jumped by 11 points in the past six months! Rising interest rates may be to blame. After all, the 30 Year Mortgage Rate jumped from 3.95% in January to 4.86% in November 2018. If mortgage rates continue to rise homes will become less affordable; however, renters will feel the squeeze too.

Best Cities for Renting or Owning

There are certain areas around the United States where it’s better to rent. On the other hand, there are places where it’s better to own. Forbes took a magnifying glass to this issue and found out where these cities are.

Amy Dobson included a visualization of rent gaps in the 33 largest metropolitan statistical areas. See it below.

Amy writes, “So what does this chart mean? The numbers listed here are percentage points—so for the San Francisco example, the difference between the percentage of salary a renter would spend versus a buyer is about 45 percentage points difference. The chart shows percentages of income. Looking at San Francisco, a buyer would have to spend 79.68% of the median income on monthly housing payments whereas a renter would spend only 35.66% of median income. Of course, most people aren’t spending nearly 80% of their income on housing (let’s hope not), but the statistic is a useful way to compare rents versus mortgage payments just to see how big a jump it takes to become a homeowner in some of the largest cities in America.”

This means the cities at the top of the visualization are the ones where it’s cheaper to rent a home. The cities at the bottom of the visualization are the ones where it’s cheaper to have a mortgage.

Income Required for a Mortgage in Cities

Prices of the housing market are vastly different depending on which area of the country to you live. For example, buying homes is more expensive in San Diego than buying a home in Pittsburgh. Forbes listed in the 33 most expensive major cities for having a mortgage. Here they are in order:

1. San Francisco, CA
2. San Jose, CA
3. San Diego, CA
4. Los Angeles, CA
5. Miami-Fort Lauderdale, FL
6. Seattle, WA
7. Riverside, CA
8. Denver, CO
9. Portland, OR
10. Sacramento, CA
11. Las Vegas, NV
12. Boston, MA
13. New York, NY
14. Orlando, FL
15. Phoenix, AZ
16. Washington, DC
17. Dallas-Fort Worth, TX
18. Tampa, FL
19. Houston, TX
20. San Antonio, TX
21. Chicago, IL
22. Charlotte, NC
23. Baltimore, MD
24. Atlanta, GA
25. Minneapolis, MN
26. Columbus, OH
27. Kansas City, KS
28. St. Louis, MO
29. Cincinnati, OH
30. Philadelphia, PA
31. Cleveland, OH
32. Pittsburgh, PA
33. Detroit, MI

The cities listed above are in order based on mortgage cost rank. To better understand their placement, see the full visualization below. Amy also writes the chart below “shows the share of median income each city would require to buy a home. Researchers assumed a thirty-year mortgage, 3.5% down payment, 4.57% interest rate and property tax and insurance rate at 1.75% of the home’s value.”

In addition to the cost of mortgages, the chart also lists cities where it’s most expensive to rent. Los Angeles is the most expensive city to rent a home in. From the list, St. Louis is the least expensive city for renters. See more below.

Feature photo by David Jakab on Pexels

Forbes rent gaps photo and cost of mortgages photo are screenshots by RPS Relocation

“The world is getting smaller” has become popular phrase due to globalization. But here’s the truth: the square footage of the world isn’t changing; however, new homes are getting bigger, at least in America.

The American Enterprise Institute recently shared some surprising information about changes in home size, square footage costs, and living space per person.

Average New Home Size

Mark J. Perry—economics professor and author of the article—writes “the median-size house has increased in size by almost 1,000 square feet, from 1,525 square feet in 1973 to 2,467 last year. In percentage terms, both the average and median size of new US houses have increased by 62% since 1973.”

Here’s what that means: if the trend were to continue, the square footage of new homes will have more than doubled within a 100-year time period! What happened to the “people today are making less than their parents did” debate? While there’s truth to that side, that fact that new homes are increasing so much in size makes it seem people today have more money.

The chart below shows the climb in square footage of new homes in 1973. Notice the dip from around 2008 until 2011. The short decline in total square footage for new homes during those years is likely to what’s now known as the Great Recession of 2008.

Cost per Square Foot

With the square footage in homes doubling since 1973, one would presume the cost per square footage is now less expensive. But that’s not the case. As a matter of fact, the price per square feet has relatively stayed the same, even considering inflation. At least the price hasn’t gone up!

Mr. Perry writes that the prices “range between about $107 and $128 per square foot at an average of about $116. The price of just more than $120 per square foot for new houses sold in 2015 was 8.5% below the peak of $131.29 (in 2015 dollars) per square foot for a new house in 2005.”

The graph below visualizes the price per square footage since 1973.

Living Space per Person

Is the average new home getting larger because more people are living under the same roof? The answer is no. As a matter of fact, people today have more square footage than they did in 1973.

Mr. Perry breaks down exactly how much more square footage each person has now, on average. He writes the “square footage of living space per person in a new US house has increased from 507 to 971 square feet using the median size house, and from 551 to 1,058 square feet using the average size house. In percentage terms, that’s a 92% increase for both the median or average house size per person.”

Final Thoughts on Living Space

Mr. Perry finishes his article on a lighter note. He explains that focusing on stagnating wages and decreasing household incomes do not paint the entire picture of our economy. Instead, he points to our overall quality of life improving since the 1970s, which is made apparent in the additional square footage we have and the price remaining about the same.

Featured photo by Sarah Jane on Pexels

American Enterprise Institute graph photos are screenshots by RPS Relocation

Immigration to the U.S.—legal and illegal—is currently a hot topic in our political sphere. Both types of immigration happen on a daily basis. Another type of movement, domestic migration, also happens on a daily basis. As we’ll find out, the movement isn’t equal. Some states are gaining domestic migrants and other states are losing domestic migrants. We’re going to focus on the states that are losing migrants.

These are the states people don’t want to move to in 2018. In the chart below you’ll see some states shaded red which means the have a negative net migration, and some states shaded blue which means they have a positive net migration from current U.S. residents or citizens.

The Washington Post has detailed which states these are. They pulled the data from the best source: the U.S. Census Bureau. The data does not consider international immigration; however, the information is interesting nevertheless. Currently it would appear that U.S. residents are moving away from California, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut.

Let’s take a closer look at the top three states people seem to be fleeing from: California, New York, and Illinois.

California

California is surrounded by Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona. As you see in the picture, California is red and the other states are blue. It seems as if migrants from California are jumping the state line in support of one of the neighboring states or moving elsewhere across the country. In an earlier post we showed how Californians were moving to places nearby like Nevada and and to states further away like Texas, New York, and Georgia.

New York

New York, a state in the northwest, is surrounded by other states people are migrating from. If we only take into consideration domestic data, it would seem like the population as a whole is getting smaller in New York. Taking international immigration into account gives a better picture, however. “For states like New York, domestic migration losses are offset by new immigration from abroad.”

Illinois

Like New York, Illinois is also surrounded by states U.S. residents are migrating away from; however, neighboring states have less of an outflow than that of the state of Illinois. “Illinois, meanwhile, had a net loss of about 105,000 residents, its largest one-year population leak in the 21st century.”

Similarities of California, New York, and Illinois

Why are people leaving these states? Or, perhaps the better question is this: why aren’t people moving to these states? The answer could be in the cost of living.

According to USA Today, California and New York both make an appearance on the list of seven most expensive states to live in. They write the “median home value in the sunny state is $429,000, and homes generally list for a median price of $425,000 ($256 per square foot).” New York is even more expensive. They continue “New York is known for its higher cost of living, with median home prices sitting at around $525,000 ($507 per square foot). The real estate market in the Big Apple is hot, as statewide housing values have risen 8.5% over the past year, according to Zillow.”

Illinois didn’t make that list; however, which could be because most of the state is farmland. Most of the population in Illinois lives in urban and surrounding suburban areas. Chicago is the largest city in the state. According to Inc., Chicago is listed as one of the ten least affordable cities in America. They write “The cost to live comfortably here is $68,670 [per year] more than $15,000 a year less than New York or LA”. This should come as no surprise as to why people are leaving the city of Chicago of lower cost living in other parts of the country, therefore giving the State of Illinois a negative net migration.

Both Los Angeles and Chicago, the biggest cities in California and Illinois, also share a dubious distinction in that the Washington Post recently added both to a different list, a list of cities were murders are most likely to go unsolved. Los Angeles has been improving but the report said there are still large pockets were murders go unsolved like Pico-Union. Chicago was named as one of the top 2 cities where murders would go unsolved according to the report. There’s no way of knowing how much this impacts net domestic migration figures for two of the largest cities in America or how much unsolved murders in these big cities impacts an entire state’s net domestic migration.

Featured photo and Chicago photo by Pixabay on Pexels

There are thousands of towns, counties, and cities in America; but not all of them will be considered the best. “Best”, as a term, is quite subjective. Different people will have unique opinions as to what they consider the best cities. Often times, their answers will be related to their own past experiences.

In order to get more objective results, certain criteria should be offered. In addition, the criteria should be judged by an authoritative source. Best Cities has stepped up to the plate in this regard. Let’s take a look at their criteria and then see what cities they view as the best in the nation.

Criteria for the Best Cities

Best Cities has described the categories used in their methodology. “The ranking evaluates each qualifying city across the six pillars of place equity: Place, Product, Programming, People, Prosperity, and Promotion.” Having so many categories allows for better final results.

Place refers to the quality (crime, air quality, etc) of the city. Product refers to the city’s institutions, attractions. and infrastructure. Programming refers to the city’s arts, culture, entertainment. and culinary scene. People refers to the immigration rate and diversity of a city. Prosperity refers to the city’s employment and unemployment rate. And Promotion refers to the number of stories, references and recommendations shared online about a city.

Best Large Cities

Best Cities lists 50 of their favorite large cities based on their criteria. Large cities are those that have “metro populations of a million people or more.” For brevity, we’ll list the top 10. They are:

1. New York
2. Chicago
3. Los Angeles
4. San Francisco
5. Las Vegas
6. San Diego
7. Houston
8. Miami
9. Seattle
10. Boston

These cities are among the most recognizable in the country. New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami—these cities are icons of American metropolitan areas. Chicago scored a perfect score when it comes to New York has a perfect score in the Place, Programming, Prosperity, and Promotion categories. Furthermore, New York has a near perfect score in the Product category. It’s no surprise then why it came in at first place on the list. Although Washington, DC is the capital, New York City is revered as the “Empire State” due to its wealth and resources.

Best Small Cities

Best Cities also lists 50 of their favorite small cities. Small cities are those that have “metro populations under a million people.” Again, we’ll list the top 10 in this category. They are:

1. Honolulu
2. Omaha
3. Albuquerque
4. Charleston
5. El Paso
6. Reno
7. Tulsa
8. Madison
9. Myrtle Beach
10. Asheville

The cities that are on this list are much less recognizable. Asheville, El Paso, Madison—these cities are relatively unknown to many people in America. Some of them, like Asheville, score highest with the Product criteria. Asheville is known for its universities, festivals, and other year-round events. In another example, Honolulu has a perfect score in the Place, Programming, and Promotion categories. It’s no surprise that Honolulu has a perfect score with Place, seeing as how the city has some of the most beautiful beaches and landscapes in the world.

New York City Photo by Lukas Kloeppel and Honolulu Photo by Tyler Lastovich on Pexels

Californians are leaving! Well, not all of them are; however, there are a few reasons native Californians are looking to live elsewhere. KERA News, an organization based in Texas, dug a little deeper as to why some Californians are relocating. Their article details why some are moving to parts of Texas and other places.

Home prices in many areas of California are expensive. “It’s clear from the median home prices why Californians are moving to North Texas. Homes on the market in the four coastal California cities averaged $720,000 in March 2017, compared to $313,000 in Dallas.” The average home prices in those four cities are double the average home price in Dallas! It’s no surprise, then, why some people in California are moving.

Top Ten Cities for Emigration

Where else are Californians moving to? KERA News listed additional cities, which they pulled from a Trulia article. The cities, as you’ll soon read, are literally scattered all over the United States. The top ten cities Californians are moving to, in order, are:

1. Las Vegas, Nevada
2. New York, New York
3. Phoenix, Arizona
4. Dallas, Texas
5. Seattle, Washington
6. Portland, Oregon
7. Atlanta, Georgia
8. Houston, Texas
9. Chicago, Illinois
10. Denver, Colorado

Do you see any cities on the list that are surprising? Three of them, New York, Seattle, and Chicago, stand out. This is because these three cities aren’t known for affordable housing as much as a city like Dallas. New York City has some of the most expensive homes in the country.

KERA News continues, “Dallas and Fort Worth had among the largest population gains last year. On the list of 15 cities nationwide with the most population growth, Dallas’ increase of 18,935 people put it at No. 3, and Fort Worth was No. 4, with an increase of 18,664.” Again, the focus is on cities in Texas due to their job opportunities and lower cost of living.

It’s important to highlight Seattle, Dallas, and Houston specifically. According to Curbed, more homes are coming to the market in what has been a slim housing market as of late. “In the Seattle city limits in June 2018, NWMLS saw 1,246 active listings, a 75.5 percent increase from the year before.” Dallas and Houston are also highlighted because their real estate market is getting hotter as well.

The New Tax Law

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 contained more than tax cuts. It also closed some tax loopholes and established some deduction ceilings. The tax law became effective January 1, 2018. Therefore, many people don’t really know how it will affect them yet. They’ll find out next April when they submit their taxes.

Here’s what I’m getting to: there is a maximum deduction for state and property taxes. The magic number is $10,000. Let’s say a homeowner in California paid $15,000 in property taxes each year. Now, with the new tax law, they will not be able to deduct that extra $5,000 from their taxes. It makes financial sense for people with expensive homes and high property taxes to move to an area with lower home prices and property taxes.

Featured Photo by Bella Co and Dallas Photo by Pixabay on Pexels

Congress Photo by Wikimedia Commons on Wikipedia