Buyer guide

Buy now, or
keep renting?

An agent telling you to buy is not news. So here is the case for both, and the question that actually settles it.

The question: how long will you stay?

Buying costs real money at both ends — closing costs going in, commission and prep going out. Spread over two years, those costs are brutal. Spread over seven, they are usually forgotten. If you cannot say with reasonable confidence that you will be in the area three to five years, renting is often the better financial call, whatever the market is doing.

When renting is the right answer

• Your job or orders could move you in the next couple of years.
• You are new to the area and still deciding which side of town fits.
• Your savings would be drained by the down payment and closing costs with nothing left for repairs.
• Your credit or debt load would mean a rate that makes the payment uncomfortable.
• You are between life changes — a marriage, a separation, a new baby, a business launch.

When buying usually wins

• You plan to stay, and the payment fits your real budget including taxes and insurance.
• Rent in your area keeps climbing while a fixed mortgage payment would not.
• You want to build equity and claim the homestead exemption, which also caps how fast your taxable value can rise.
• You want a shop, land, pets or renovations a landlord will never allow.

Do not wait for a perfect market

Buyers who waited for rates to drop watched prices rise, and buyers who waited for prices to drop watched rates rise. You cannot time both. What you can control is buying a house you can afford, in a place you want to be, and staying long enough for the transaction costs to stop mattering.

A straightforward next step

Get pre-approved even if you are unsure. Knowing your real number makes the rent-versus-buy comparison concrete instead of hypothetical, and it costs nothing.

New Braunfels homesDown payment guide

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Rules, programs and local requirements change — confirm the details with your lender, attorney, title company, county office or another qualified professional.