While it's been a minute (or a couple of decades) since Austin flipped to a majority-renter city, the affordability gap for those hoping to make the transition to being buyers continues to grow. In fact, a new Realtor.com report has Austin topping the list over  markets that favor renting over buying a home.

The monthly cost of buying a starter home in the Texas capital was almost $4,000 — more than 130 percent higher than the monthly rent of $1,600 — according to the August report. While the median home price in the metro area recently dropped ever so slightly, Realtor.com found that monthly payments for of purchasing a home in the city rose by 9.2 percent year-over-year, but rents dropped a 8 percent for the same period.

The study blamed higher mortgage rates as well as the predominance of tech workers, who are generally higher earners, for the soaring monthly cost of buying.

To calculate the data, Realtor.com used the August 2023 median rental prices for studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom homes, weighted by the number of listings in each metropolitan housing market, and compared that with the monthly buying costs of a median-priced home, assuming a 7 percent down payment and a mortgage rate of 7.07 percent and including all fees and taxes. The 50 largest metros in the nation were included in the analysis.

Realtor.com

The top 10 metros where renters save the most money are:

  • Austin
  • San Francisco, California
  • Columbus, Ohio
  • Sacramento, California
  • Los Angeles
  • San Jose, California
  • Portland, Oregon
  • Boston
  • Seattle
  • Phoenix

The three markets where buying can save the most money each month are:

  • Memphis, Tennessee
  • Pittsburgh
  • Birmingham, Alabama