i found these interesting..
http://www.imf.org/external/research/housing/
https://smartasset.com/mortgage/price-to-rent-ratio-in-us-cities
That's good "back of the envelope" analysis, but it doesn't capture the whole picture. Lets say you rented a house in Portland OR in 2012 for $1000. The median value then was $228k. fast forward to 2017 and the median is around $350k. You would have paid out $60,000 in rent and you would have nothing to show for it. Lets say you bought that house with 20% down and 5% int. Your payments (P&I) would have been $979.16 x 60= $58,749 + $45,600 down for a total investment of $104,350, much more than rent, BUT...the loan balance would now be $167,214 and the house is worth $350k so you now have equity of $182,786. Of course this doesn't take into account maintenance and taxes & ins, but you would still have a ton of equity. Its even a better investment when you look at the return on just the equity you have invested.
