April’s Rent vs. Buy Report shows some shifts in the rent position, which now dominates Tri-Cities county markets with one exception.

Hawkins County was neutral for the month, down from a 1% cheaper to rent position in January.

The report calculates median buying costs based on Realtor.com county-level residential price data and median rental prices sourced from the U.S. Department of Housing and Development data for rental estimates in the 50^th percentiles. Household income data is from Nielsen Pop Facts Demographics 019.

According to the report, it was cheaper to rent in 10 of the 11-county Tri-Cities region. The strongest rent position was in Johnson County, where it was 16% cheaper to rent than buying. The weakest rental position was in Unicoi County, where it was 2% cheaper to rent than buy. February’s rent position was 4% in January.

The report compares the median monthly costs of renting and buying relative to the median income in 3,143 US counties. By February 2019, renting costs have gone up in 66% of the counties, and buying is cheaper in 40% of counties nationwide.

Categories: CORE DATA, REAL ESTATE