Buying vs Renting a Condo

This should have been my first post here, but it turns out it is given its place at 8th. In my previous post, I shared a spreadsheet that helped me determine my affordability if I were to move out and buy this place. But I'm here today to talk about why it might be better to buy a place vs renting one. This is my take on it, so go nuts on scrutinizing it ;)

Before searching for a place, I knew I was going to buy and never rent. I was fortunate enough to get by living at home with my folks, but I knew the time was going to come sooner than later when I'd want independence. Until I made my decision to buy my condo, I didn't know much about the real estate market, and what state it was in. I used a supporting calculator from the NY Times' website to determine whether it was actually better to buy than to rent this condo I was going to buy.

It told me = Buying is better than renting after 2 years.

The process deemed interesting and it brought back some good/bad memories of Economic class... given where the market is right now, it doesn't look too shabby:

• Prices of homes are rising by an average of 7% in the past 10 years
• Interest rate's been a low 1% since 2009

Although we'd be jumping for joy to see such a low interest rate, it is important to know that "What goes up must come down, and what is down will go back up." So yes, I am playing the game a bit, in that I went with a variable rate.

My condo priced as I got it, was the average price of a property back in 2004. I thought, the price of homes are always on a rise, and properties will become more expensive further down the road. But could we reach a point where the prices of homes are so expensive that they are unaffordable?

The cost of a 1 bedroom condo in downtown Ottawa today can go as much as $334,000 (yikes!) compared to 2 bedroom condo just 5 minutes away from the downtown core going for as much as $230,000 (this is not mentioning condo feeds/property taxes).

There were many factors that affected my buying decision:

• Convenience;
• Location;
• One of the tallest buildings on Riverside, if not the tallest! (29 storeys, and I'm on the 26th!); and,
• many many more!

But there was no doubt that I'd buy over rent. Although this might not be the case for everyone, it was for me. Was it for you? Share any thoughts you might have, be happy to listen :)