A simple way to quickly compare buying vs renting for entire areas is the "rent ratio", which is calculated by dividing an area's median house price by its annu

A simple way to quickly compare buying vs renting for entire areas is the "rent ratio", which is calculated by dividing an area's median house price by its annual rent. Obviously it just paints a geographical picture and each property should be evaluated individually before making any sort of specific buy vs. rent decision. We turned the rent ratios for the US into a heat map a few years ago (but keep it up to date): http://hotpads.com/search/rent-ratio-heat-maps http://hotpads.com/search/rent-ratio-heat-maps