Rent vs. own - revisited

I happen to be a financial nerd. When normal people go to Costco to buy some shampoo, they usually pick whatever brand they prefer or whichever smells better. I, on the other hand, start instantly calculating the amount of shampoo units that can be acquired per dollar thus finding the best deal. Not really because I want to save money, but I want to compare things in financial terms as opposed to brands. Heck, I've calculated how much money I've spent on cigarettes back when I used to smoke and how much it cost me overall. I've even calculated return on investing into a shaver and shaving my hair as opposed to getting my hair cut every month (13,940%, risk free).

So, with our 5-year mortgage term coming to an end and going through a process of refinancing, I wouldn't be me if I didn't calculate what was more beneficial to us; renting for five years or putting money down on our own home.

Rent vs. Own is one of those topics people will never get tired of discussing. Just like movie buffs keep arguing whether or not Han Solo shot first and truck enthusiasts keep knocking Ford against Chevy, people interested in personal finance will never get tired of discussing buying your own place vs. renting.

But discussing things in general ain't no fun. It's also quite pointless because everything depends on your own situation. So, I've actually crunched some real measurable numbers using these five years as an example to figure out whether or not we've lost money on our home purchase.

Premise and numbers

• We've purchased our townhome 5 years ago for $285,000.
• The downpayment was $57,000.
• Similar unit in our building rents out for $1,600/month.
• Mortgage interest - 3.69%.
• We have to account for acquisition and liquidation fees in both scenarios.
• The value of our home increased marginally by $10,000.
• The market returns during the same 5 period reached 90% (S&P500)

Let's say if we've chosen to rent; we'd invest the downpayment on the open market and let it grow. At the same time we'd pay the rent month after month. At the end of 5-year period we'd cash out the investments, and pay appropriate capital appreciation taxes.

In the case of owning, we have to account for mortgage interest paid out, strata fees, municipal taxes, maintenance, and all the fees associated with acquisition and liquidation (cashing out).

As you see, owning our own home cost us almost $57,000. This includes all the maintenance costs, lukewarm increase in real estate value, money we've put into our home, and debt servicing costs (mortgage interest).

Renting a similar unit and investing our down-payment instead would cost us around $48,000. This includes an outstanding performance of the stock market, taxes we'd have to pay on our gains, and amount of money we'd spend on rent payments. I'm ignoring sales commissions as they're non-existent in case of index funds. I'm also not bothering with scenarios of investing into TFSA/RRSP accounts to keep it somewhat fair.

Anecdotally, the running monthly cost of owning our home (interest + taxes + strata fees) is lower than renting. But if you add principal payments into the mix, it's about the same. 

 

Technically, we've lost money by buying

As you see, we'd be better off if we kept renting and invested our money. But I'm not about to sell our home and go invest our money instead. Many other factors are in play, and they make the difference between these two scenarios very blurry:

• Owning our own home gave us a huge feeling of security. If you've ever been told you have to move because the landlord's niece wants to live here, you know what I'm talking about. Or if you ever wanted to paint your walls yellow and pink but couldn't because it's not even your pad.
• The market returns were outstanding as they recovered from the recession. Ninety percent over 5 years is nothing but stellar. But moving forward, the returns will have to come down to their historic average. Personally, I'm getting a feeling that we're in for a rough ride on the market, and expecting another run like this is rather unrealistic.
• The cost of our mortgage is about to go down drastically as the mortgage rates came down recently and a good chunk of our principal has been paid out (we're down to $194,000). This will reduce the debt servicing portion of the cost moving forward. Rent payments on the other hand go nowhere but up.

 

Read the complete story here - http://moneyramblings.com/rent-vs-own-five-years-later/

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This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.