Should You Buy Or Rent In Your N.J. Town In 2017?

It's one of the hardest decisions you'll have to make: Should I rent or buy? With New Jersey having the highest property taxes in the nation, it can be a very tough question.

Analysts have released a 2017 Rental Affordability Report that breaks down New Jersey's housing markets and suggests whether to rent or buy in each of them (see list below).

The report was put together by ATTOM Data Solutions, which curates a national property database and shows that buying a home is more affordable than renting in 66 percent of U.S. housing markets analyzed.

The analysis incorporated recently released fair market rent data for 2017 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics along with public record sales deed data.

“While buying continues to be more affordable than renting in the majority of U.S. markets, that equation could change quickly if mortgage rates keep rising in 2017,” Daren Blomquist, senior vice president with ATTOM Data Solutions, said in a news release. “In that scenario, renters who have not yet made the leap to homeownership will find it even more difficult to make that leap this year. Additionally, renting may end up being the lesser of two housing affordability evils in a growing number of high-priced markets.”

Among the nation’s most populous counties, those where it is more affordable to buy than to rent are Cook County (Chicago), Illinois; Maricopa County (Phoenix), Arizona; Miami-Dade County, Florida; San Bernardino County, in inland Southern California; Clark County (Las Vegas), Nevada; Tarrant County, Texas in the Dallas metro area; Wayne County (Detroit), Michigan; Broward County, Florida in the Miami metro area; Bexar County (San Antonio), Texas; and Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania.

For this report, analysis looked at average rental data for three-bedroom properties in 2017 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, along with average weekly wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (most recent available).

Here is the list of New Jersey's real estate markets, county-by-county, which identifies whether it's better to rent or buy in each one:

Patch file photo