Recently I read an article on The Wall Street Journal titled “A Fresh Look at Rent vs. BUY” and I thought it was interesting applying a simple exercise to my home town, Weston Florida.
The article mentions an analysis done by Trulia. According to Trulia, the cross-over point is about 15 times annual rent. Fifteen times is the historic average. Trulia data has to be taken with some precaution. Trulia takes list prices instead of sale prices; also the cut-off point of 15 times rent may be on the low side, points out the article.
As an example, the value for New York is 32 times; San Francisco is 22 times and Miami 8 times. The hardest hit markets show the cheapest prices.
Now going to my home town. Weston is a young city, carefully planned, beautiful manicured landscapes, excellent schools, safe place to raise a family. These characteristics make Weston a very attractive place to invest in.
For my exercise I took a cross-section of Weston consisting of: typical 3 bedrooms houses; about 1,600 sf; not distressed properties.
| For Sale | Closed Sales CS | Av Price CS |
| $265,000-$399,000 | $280,000-$312,000 | $296,000 |
| Rent | Rent | Cross-Over Point |
| $2,000/month | $24,000/year | 12 |
The result is 12 times the rent. In Weston inventory is low but according to our result, there are some options worth of evaluation. In our segment of the market if we find a property under $288,000 is worth analyzing the possibility of buying instead of renting.
Always in this type of analysis you have to take into account your current cash-flow. If renting is cheaper than buying today, leave your dream of ownership for some other time. It is a matter of the opportunity you can afford.
In this market, under the current conditions, we can say that Weston has not been hit that bad and the most important fact “Weston is a safe place, for a safe investment.”
Avg. Sales Price: 379,000
Free Market Alerts 
