When it comes to renting vs. buying a home, Fairfield County comes out on top in Connecticut with Windham County being the worst location.
The study by New York technology company Smart Asset created a rent vs. buy index. It said a homeowner would have to live in Fairfield County for 3.2 years before breaking even on the cost of a mortgage against paying rent. In Windham County, the breakeven period wasn’t significantly longer at 4 years.
Smart Asset compared the total costs of buying and renting a typical home or rental in each county, for a household earning $100,000 a year. For the “buy” scenario, it made the following assumptions: a mortgage rate of 4.5 percent, closing costs of $2,000, and a down payment of 20 percent. For each county, it found the breakeven point in the buy vs. rent decision— the point at which the total costs of renting become greater than the total costs of buying.
This is how the Connecticut counties ranked:
- Fairfield County – 3.2 years;
- Middlesex County – 3.3 years;
- New London County – 3.6 years;
- Litchfield County – 3.7 years;
- Tolland County – 3.8 years;
- Hartford County – 3.9 years;
- New Haven County – 3.9 years; and,
- Windham County – 4.0 years.
Windham County has the lowest average rent in Connecticut at $1,244 vs. Fairfield County’s average rent of $2,217. Fairfield County also had the highest average home price of $347,714 vs. $152,116 in Windham.
