Rent or buy, with the thumb taken off the scale.

In Central Florida, usually somewhere between three and six years, and the driver is transaction costs rather than the payment. Buying costs a few percent going in and roughly 8% coming out once commission, doc stamps and title are counted. That is the hole appreciation and principal paydown have to fill before you are ahead. Under three years, renting wins far more often than people expect.

Because otherwise the comparison is dishonest. If buying costs $700 a month more than renting, the renter who banks that difference has a real and growing asset, and ignoring it makes buying look better than it is. Crediting the renter is what turns this from a sales tool into a decision tool — and buying still wins plenty of the time, which is the point.

No. You are buying housing and flexibility, and flexibility has genuine value when your job, your family size or the city you want to live in is not settled. What is actually wasted is the money that disappears in transaction costs when someone buys a house they leave after two years, and that number is far larger than a year of rent.