Being in real estate I hear Realtors talking all the time that it’s better to own than rent.  I know that the general population thinks we say that just ’cause we want to sell more houses.  So let’s take a REAL LOOK at why it is better to own than rent.

Set the stage:  The average price (mean) of a home in San Antonio, Texas is $156,000.  Given 30 years at 12 monthly payments on an FHA loan at 3.85% (today’s market rate for outstanding credit score) compared to a rental payment of $1250 (including rental insurance).

Using my handy dandy rent v. buy calculator I get the following results in a full comparison:

Owning a home would cost $48,605.94 less than renting.