[Rick Lee]

Wifey and I went house hunting last weekend in Phoenix with our own Pelicanite, Eric Coffey. We pulled the trigger on a pretty nice place with HUGE 2+1 garage space, built-in workbench, tool cabinets, granite countertops in the kitchen around 2k sq. ft. IIRC and all for $1450 a month. That's well below my mortgage and condo payments for my 1048 sq. ft. shoebox in Virginia. I can't recall the sales price of the house we're renting, but I think it was close to $400k. Another place we looked at was 2600 sq. ft., never lived in, still smelled like new carpet and lumber, rents for $1500 a month or for sale at $389k. Even with 20%, which ain't chump change, mortgage payments on those two places would be about double the rent payments. How far apart should these two number be before it makes sense to buy again? At this rate, I'm happy to be a renter. No amount of tax deduction could make a 20% down payment and double-rent-size mortgage payment worthwhile. Wow. Huge bang for the buck in Phoenix these days, but really only by renting.

FWIW, I pay about $1700 a month for my shoebox condo in VA AND I put 20% down when I bought it. And renting it out will probably bring in $1700. So a renter would really only be saving a down payment by renting instead of buying.