Crain’s Chicago Business (subscription required), citing a recent report from Deutsche Bank, reports that “the local residential market has swung back in favor of home ownership thanks to rising apartment rents, falling home prices and low interest rates.”
Crain’s notes a sharp increase in the own vs rent advantage since 2006:
The average Chicago-area rent represented 118.6% of the after-tax monthly mortgage payment for the median home here in fourth-quarter 2010, the highest percentage since at least 1991, according to Deutsche Bank, which doesn’t have data for earlier years. The cost of renting has exceeded the cost of owning for four out of the last five quarters and has soared from a low of 58.5% in 2006, when home prices peaked.
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