Renting Verses Buying! Lake Forest Prime for Buying!

Reported in the Orange County Register by Jonathan Lansner, buying a home in Lake Forest instead of renting is just about perfect right now. Buying costs reached a point, using a simple math formula, sides with the house shopper instead of the renter.

Every shopper is different and every house is different so no formula will be able to fit all buyers into one scenario. Orange County Index indicates that the prices of recent home purchases when compare to a benchmark of local rents in and around Lake Forest is looking better than it has in ten years.

The last time this happened in Orange County was just before prices took off in the late 1999. In the late 80s and up till then mortgage payments were close to double the rents. Once they reached about 56% of the cost to own a house, the market for buying took off. I am glad to say we are at that point again. In the latter part of 2009 the difference between renting verses buying is at a low 57%.

We would be selling more homes but it is difficult to get many buyers qualified because the banks are afraid to loan money to any one but the cream of the crop.