Rents have risen so much even outside big cities that in some cases it's cheaper to just buy a Single Family Home (SFH), especially with low mortgage rates. In my area, it costs around $1600 to rent a 2BR2BA apartment in a good complex (no garage). 3BRs easily $1700+. SFH $1800+.
A basic 1800 sqft 3BR 20 year old SFH with a 2 car garage is like $365K in the same area with 8+ rated schools. Its even lower if you don't care about schools. This brings your monthly PITI+HOA ex-utilities to like $1600 a month at 20% down (slightly higher now with interest rates going above 3.5%). Nice 2500 sqft ones at $450K.
This is all in the past year. It wasn't this expensive to rent compared to buying pre-pandemic. My apartment rent went up like 15% when I renewed.
A basic 1800 sqft 3BR 20 year old SFH with a 2 car garage is like $365K in the same area with 8+ rated schools. Its even lower if you don't care about schools. This brings your monthly PITI+HOA ex-utilities to like $1600 a month at 20% down (slightly higher now with interest rates going above 3.5%). Nice 2500 sqft ones at $450K.
This is all in the past year. It wasn't this expensive to rent compared to buying pre-pandemic. My apartment rent went up like 15% when I renewed.