December 08, 2006

Ripoff-ee or ripoff-er? What is the rental market in your neighbourhood? Are you paying too much? Charging too little? This handy tool will tell you how you compare!! (US, Canada, and London only.) No claim made for the accuracy of this website!
posted by Northern Exposed 18 years ago
  • I'm paying right in the average for my 3-bedroom house in Ottawa. And since I pay about $1000 a month less to rent the place than it would cost in mortgage and property taxes to buy it -- never mind upkeep and repairs -- I'm having a hard time seeing an incentive to buy right now.
  • Yeah, I did the same rent vs. buy calculation as fimbulvetr and surprisingly (to me) figured out renting is better at the present. Esp. since our place is all-inclusive.
  • "Yeah, but it's dead money." Ever hear people say that?
  • Woo-hoo! I'm moving to London next month; this will be perfect. Thanks Northern Exposed! LondonMonkeys: How accurate is it?
  • Your monthly rent amount of $xxx for a 2 beds in Montreal is much lower than the average rent in your area. Your unit seems to be a great deal! (Unfortunately I'm the owner...) And in my case renting also was a much better deal, but since the owner of our rental decided to sell the place, which would have resulted in our eviction, we more or less had to buy. We have 4 tennants, all paying very low rents but they do pay the mortgage. The upkeep, insurance, etc is on our dime. But when a tennant leaves we'll fix the place up and rent it for a more realistic rent. So in a couple of years we live for free and have a retirement property for the time we're unable to work anymore. (Mwoah, this is a way too serious comment for this site. Let's go back to the regular nonsense.)
  • It did tell me that renting in Hamilton is only about a hundred bucks cheaper than my proposed mortgage. And then there's the usual costs associated with a house. But I'm tired of commuting, and of a landlord that won't fix my shower so that I don't have to keep one hand on the pully-outy thing to keep water going through the showerhead.
  • It said my rent was average for my neighborhood -- while my landlord (who fixes *nothing,* including our refrigerator, water heater or leaking roof) claims that our rent is outrageously cheap! Hmm. I'm hoping we'll be looking for a new place soon (read: breaking the lease re: above broken-ness), so this might be a good tool for us. Thanks, Northern Exposed!
  • Apparently my rents's just about average. Of course, the rental market is really skewed because I live in town with two top universities and most of the rents are being paid by rich moms and dads from Manhattan, LA, and Tokyo. What would improve this site is if you could see the addresses for the lower-rent places. When I was searching, this was the lowest rent I could find.
  • Great site, NE. And yeah, it makes a lot more sense to rent than buy in many markets these days....
  • hmmm... Ran it three times, for the same address and rent. First time it said I had a great deal, second time it said my rent may be 'way too high', third time 'very close to the average'. I think I'll go with the first answer.