The FiLife blog points out that in some places, renting is still smarter than buying….of course this flies in the face of conventional wisdom that renting is throwing your money away. Or is that just a line real estate agents give potential buyers? Anyway,¬† to figure out if the cost of ownership outweighs the cost of renting, do this. Take the cost of a comparable home for sale/the annual cost of your rent = the number you get is your rent ratio.¬† My rent ratio happened to be 20, which, according to the NY Times column that inspired the post, which is the point when the monthly costs of ownership starts to exceed the costs of renting. But right at 20 — does that mean it would still be doable?

At any rate, this is all moot, since Trin and I haven’t started really socking away a down payment just yet. But the post did garner one comment with a link to this cool buy or rent calculator.