rent – The Core Group

Are You Wondering What It Takes To Buy Your First Home?

There are many people sitting on the sidelines trying to decide if they should purchase a home or sign a rental lease. Some might wonder if it makes sense to purchase a house before they are married and have a family. Others may think they are too young. And still others might think their current income would never enable them to qualify for a mortgage.

We want to share what the typical first time homebuyer actually looks like based on the National Association of REALTORS most recent Profile of Home Buyers & Sellers. Here are some interesting revelations on the first time buyer:

The COST of Renting vs. Buying

Please keep in mind that every U.S. market is not the same. To find out if your market is a rent or a buy market, visit the Beracha, Hardin, & Johnson Buy vs. Rent Index.

Some Highlights of this Infographic:

Historically the Percentage of your income needed to afford a home vs. renting was a much closer margin. Making renting make sense.
Now… Renting will cost you 30.1% of your income compared to buying a median home at 15.3% of your income.
Either way you’re paying a mortgage… why not have it be yours?

Rent vs. Buy – Buy, Buy, Buy…

Is it better to rent or buy in the current housing market? The answer to that question all depends on your location and personal situation. There are certain situations where renting short term probably makes sense. It may make sense if you are retiring to a different part of the country and are not yet sure where you want to settle down for the next 25 years. It may make sense if you have a one year employment contract which will probably require a move to another place upon termination.

However, in most cases, renting right now makes little sense for several reasons.

Waiting to buy makes no sense as the cost of owning a home may still increase.
Financing a home may soon become much more expensive than they are right now.
Owning a home is less expensive than renting a home in 72% of major U.S. cities.
Rental costs are about to explode.

Below is a graph showing the vacancy rates of rentals across the U.S.

Rent can NOW BOOST your credit score!

On-time rental payments now help boost credit scores

In the past, only negative rental payment data such as evictions and collections were reported to consumer reporting agencies. Therefore, your on-time rental payments never helped boost your credit scores, unlike credit card, mortgage or car payments that help raise credit scores when paid on time.

But this has changed now that Experian® will be including positive rental data in consumer credit reports. The addition of this data is a tremendous benefit to anyone who rents, especially those who are non-credit-active, cash-based consumers.

Key Benefits to Consumers

Establish or rebuild your credit — You can now make your continuous on-time rental payments count towards establishing or rebuilding your credit

Qualify for what you deserve — If you were previously unable to qualify for a lease or credit product due to a thin credit file you will now be able to demonstrate past rental payment history and qualify for what you deserve

How It Works

Experian RentBureau receives updated rental payment data every 24 hours from its national network of property management companies. In order for this data to be included in your credit file, your property management company must contribute its rental history data to Experian RentBureau.

Experian recognizes the value of having a good rental payment history. Please contact your property management company and ask them to contribute their data to Experian RentBureau.