See how your state stacks up, then run your own numbers to find the breakeven point for your situation.
Home price ÷ annual rent for a typical home. Roughly: under 16 usually favors buying, over 24 usually favors renting, in between is a closer call. Hover for a quick look, or click a state to see its counties.
The two options being compared, plus how long you'd stay.
Rough starting points, all editable. These drive the comparison as much as the two numbers above do, so it's worth swapping in your own estimates where you have them.
It depends mostly on how long you will stay. Buying carries large one-time costs, closing costs when you buy and selling costs when you leave, and it takes years of paying down the loan and price growth to earn them back. The calculator finds your breakeven year: stay longer than that and buying comes out ahead on these assumptions, leave sooner and renting does.
A renter keeps the down payment and closing costs, and usually pays less each month. The comparison assumes that money is invested rather than spent, so the return you expect on it decides how much renting is really worth. Change it and watch the breakeven move.
From Zillow's Home Value Index and Observed Rent Index, county by county. Click a county on the map to load its figures. Where Zillow has no county figure, the page falls back to the next-broadest published one and says so.