San Francisco-based real estate search company Trulia.com has whipped up some enticing, interactive data porn which ought to help potential homeowners weigh the pros and cons of renting versus buying in the country's 50 largest cities. (If nothing else, it'll at least help us renters justify our embarrassing lack of property ownership.) Using data based on the ratio between the median rent for a two-bedroom in the city and the median list price for a similarly-sized home, we can learn that our rent-to-buy ratio is a 21. In other words, San Francisco is one of the top 14 cities where it makes more sense to rent than to buy. In fact, the only two cities who beat us on that metric were Seattle and New York. On the other hand, our rents are still astronomical with the median price landing between $3000 and $3500 for a two bedroom, which means a lot of you are still living in some very expensive apartments.
· Rent vs Buy Index Q1 2011 [Trulia.com]
· Thinking About Buying an Apartment? Red Light! [CurbedNY]
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