buying is becoming more affordable than renting in many cities

[Tariq Hakeem]

Realtor.com says despite double-digit increases in home prices and a record low number of homes for sale, buying is becoming more affordable in a growing number of the nation's largest cities compared to renting. The monthly buying cost of buying is the same or was cheaper in 15 of the nation's 50 largest metros, up from 13 a year ago. Nine other markets were within 5% of flipping in favor of buying from renting. Low interest rates have made the monthly cost to purchase the median price home in the US rise 0.2% year-over-year to $1,988, despite the double-digit growth in home prices. The cost to rent was up 2.4% to $1,727. In the top 10 metros that favored buying over renting, the median listing price of a home averaged 7.7% lower than January's national median listing price of $346,000, while rents were 0.7% greater than the top-50 average.