Buying Is Cheaper Than Renting
Home ownership remains cheaper in greater Lansing than renting. You can calculate just how much money you will save by owning by using the Rent vs Buy Calculator on this web site. Assuming a 4.5% mortgage rate on a 30 year fixed rate loan with 20% down and staying in the home for seven years, a buyer is likely to save $28,658 over renting.
Of course a variety of assumptions go into this calculation and home price appreciation key among them. Appreciation exceeding a conservative 3% can, upon sale, make home ownership a money maker, ending up making living free.
A key issue for renters is not getting caught in an endless cycle of renting with interest rates continuing to rise and saving for a down payment increasingly more difficult. Strangely, it is often that potential buyers aren't qualified in terms of credit scores, employment, or down payment. It's that they think they are not qualified and they think they don't have enough down payment.
Freddie Mac has spoken to this issue:
- 1. A person ‘can get a conforming conventional mortgage with a down payment of as little as 5 percent (sometimes with a little as 3% coming out of their pockets)’.
- 2. Freddie Mac's purchase of mortgages with down payments under 10% more than quadrupled between 2009 and 2013.
- 3. More than one in five borrowers who took out conforming , conventional mortgages in 2014 put down ten percent or less.
If you are ready and willing to buy a home, have a professional help you determine if you qualify for a mortgage. You can lock in your cost of housing for the life of the loan and enjoy the many benefits of home ownership.
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