With plummeting housing prices and rental rates going up (credit crunch victims need a place to live, after all), prospective home buyers face more confusion about whether it’s better to buy or rent a home.
Housing search engine and listing service HotPads.com thinks it has the answer to the conundrum: showing rental and mortgage rates side by side on the screen.
On Monday the Washington, D.C. company will launch the first “buy vs. rent” search feature in the industry. Select a city and a target location from the list on the left of your screen, and a map of the area comes up with a choice of a street, aerial or hybrid view. Then enter the amount you’re prepared to pay for a place per month. Hotpads then returns all the matching properties on a 3D map. Red homes are those for sale, and Hotpads shows only those you can afford with a mortgage payment in the range you selected, and yellow homes are for rent, and it will only show those with rental payments in the same range. See image below.
You can also tweak the amount you’re prepared to pay per month, with a slider. You can also change the loan terms you want for a purchase — size of down payment, length of mortgage and the interest rate you think you can get — and matching properties again pop up on a 3D map.
As you click on each property on the map, a bubble pops up showing pricing details. See image below.
This will be useful for some people. Even before the credit crunch shook things up, we knew several young professionals who were undecided about whether they should rent or buy. Obviously, short-term and long-term goals will and should factor into that decision, but for some, it boils down to a practical decision about how much they can afford, and this map lets them know what they’re really getting with buy vs. rent.
Launched in November of 2005 by Doug Pope and two other college roommates, the company says its site has 300,000 visitors a month. It kicked off with $200,000 in seed money from family, friends and the founders. In March, it raised $2.3 million in a first round of capital from Meakem Becker Venture Capital and the Investment Group of Santa Barbara. Pope expects to raise a larger round of venture capital next year.
9 Comments
-
db said:
They can add one important thing to the pricing (average property tax). Also I used to have this discussion with someone very often. If you save 200 per month renting (one example) after 25 years are you ahead if you banked that extra 200 bucks ( 200 per month - 4 per cent return compounded over 25 years). Build that into the model and it adds another interesting feature. He recently bought a home so I think I convinced him the home was the better investment.
-
Richard Adhikari said:
Yes, it’s always better to buy…and I agree that a feature showing the property tax would be good. Problem is, the tax rate depends (a) on the city; (b) on current valuation. And the city will increase the rate every year. Also, there is the question of special bonds etc that are passed…way too many variables to be sure you can code them in accurately.
Now the problem with purchasing in today’s market is, with house prices tumbling, you might owe more than the house is worth. That’s actually happened to a woman in Oakland, who said the sale price of her house is now $200K less than what she bought it for. And, since she got a subprime mortgage and will be paying interest and principal on the higher price, she’s in real trouble.
Her rationale was that the lending companies should not have lent her the money for the house if they knew she was a bad risk. Nah, sez I, she is responsible for her problem. Here’s where the price comparison feature for buyers will be a big help - at least they will get a ballpark idea of what the house will cost.
Of course, people forget the taxes, and the fact that you have to do maintenance on the house,, which can cost 1-3 per cent of the house’s price annually, I believe.
Bottom line: We’re all responsible for our decisions and need to step back and think things through clearly. This site’s tools will help, but that’s all. -
Matt Corgan said:
Hi, Matt from HotPads here…
Thanks for the suggestions. The “Monthly” price that comes up in the preview bubble is just the mortgage payment. So far we’ve decided that was the most straightforward number to report, but that can be changed.
Common additions to the mortgage payment would be 0.4% for homeowner’s insurance, and 1.3% for property tax. Then it gets more complicated with income tax deductions for property tax and interest payments. On top of that, the interest tax savings decrease rapidly over time.
With more feedback, we may change the listings that are returned in search results…
But when the site is launched, you’ll notice we’ve also included a thorough Buy vs. Rent calculator in the full listing. It charts housing related monthly payments over time, and the buyer’s assets vs. the renter’s assets over time. It shows you what expenses you’ll need to handle in your new home, and what assets you’ll be working with the next time you move.
-
Yuri Ammosov said:
Cannot find this tab on NYC map.
-
Yuri Ammosov said:
There is no such feature there anymore.
-
Darrell Pierre said:
This feature does not go live until Monday. Richard got a sneak peek.
-
Richard Adhikari said:
Darrell’s correct, Yuri, this feature goes live on Monday.
Once it’s up, you can log in and use it. -
John said:
List Your FSBO on Colorado MLS and save $1000s in broker commissions. Info at http://www.denvercoloradorealestate.us
-
Jimmy said:
That is really neat feature. I checked it out for the Austin, TX region and it was pretty amazing to see the pricing of homes vs apartments.
