BOCA RATON (970 WFLA) -- The latest national index produced by three Florida university professors shows that homeowners are still coming out ahead of those who rent and put their down payment into investments... but just barely.
Dr. Ken Johnson of Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, is one of the experts behind the B-H-and-J Buy versus Rent index. He says his index, which sometimes ends up signaling a price turnaround, says trends favor renters in 20 out of 23 cities surveyed.
Johnson says conditions are similar to 1999, just before a run up in housing prices. He says home prices in about half a dozen of the cities he surveys, are approaching the point where renting makes more sense... including Dallas, Denver, Miami and Portland Oregon.
The "B H and J" survey doesn't include Tampa Bay because there isn't enough rent data. But Johnson says home prices here are just ahead of a 40-year price trend, because of a run up in the past 18 months. But not by a great deal.