Is it better to own or rent a home in America?

As the purchase market heats up and buying a house gets more competitive, many borrowers may be asking why they’re going through the stress, anxiety and headaches of the homebuying process. Single family rental developments have taken off, and it might be easier or even more financially sensible to rent in the suburbs rather than buy. While the emotional resonance of property ownership and the American Dream are certainly compelling, sometimes you need to make the brass-tacks case that buying a home makes more financial sense than renting. To see if such a case might be made, Odeta Kushi (pictured), deputy chief economist at First American, looked at 50 housing markets across America to see if renting or buying made more financial sense. In all but two of those markets (San Jose and San Francisco), owning made more sense than renting. Even in locations wh