I still am trying to wrap my head around this whole thing but am starting to believe it is going to be based on where you live and your situation. Here is mine so don't think renting makes any sense. Here is my information based on zillow. House is 2062 sft, built in 2007, would appraise around $220,000 and would rent for about $1800. My current house payment on a 20 year (17 years remaining) at 3.75% is $970 including insurance and property tax, balance remaining is $95,000.
We thought about getting a new place and renting this one out but not sure how well it would rent, we see houses up for rent in our addition setting for quite a while. Also, would need to update the flooring which would be a job of tearing out pavers and replacing them with something else, and then replace the carpet in the other rooms. Have not gotten any estimates but think it would cost somewhere around $15,000 to do this. The tearout of pavers will be a job as it is in all the kitchen, hallways, bathroom and laundry room.
Staying in this school district for my 6th grade daughter, we could downsize in sft but houses are selling for around $120 per sft as there is not much on the market in the lower sft range, making no sense to move. Houses rent for around $1 per sft, 1800 sft rents for $1800 per month.
