The Value of Tenure over Time
Considering the value of homeownership relative to renting , the longer a family plans to stay in one place , the more the value of homeownership is realized . If a family is only planning on staying in one place a short time , transaction fees associated with buying and selling are likely to outweigh the value of owning ( the break-even point will vary due to several factors ).
If one is planning to remain in one place over the long term , the marginal costs of those transactions will become diminished as values are realized . One of the primary ways in which these values are realized is through the constancy of housing costs secured by a mortgage relative to the annual market-based adjustment of housing costs in the rental market . For a person in Marion County who purchased a home in 2005 with a conventional mortgage , their mortgage costs are much the same today as they were in that first year ( a median of $ 1,079 for mortgage and additional housing costs , per the American Community Survey ); for someone who rented at the median rent each year during that same time , their monthly housing costs would have increased 23.8 percent over that same period of time ( Figure 8 ). 10
Figure 8 . Percent Change in Monthly Owner and Renter Costs , Relative to 2005 ; Marion County
30 %
25 %
20 %
15 %
10 %
5 %
0 %
-5 %
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Monthly Owner Costs Gross Rent
Source : American Community Survey , 1 year estimates ( table DP04 )
10 Available from the National Low Income Housing Coalition ; Indiana data are available at http :// nlihc . org / oor / indiana .
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