Home-owners were poorer than renters (in terms of positive cashflow) in June due to a slight rise in interest rates and house prices.
When you take into account all those fun extras like maintenance and insurance on top of the mortgage, a typical first home buying household is around NZ$57 a week better off renting than buying.
While this is a bummer, consider this: one year ago the difference was a whopping NZ$150. I don’t need to tell you this is because interest rates and house prices were much higher a year ago, obviously.
And check this out: when house hunters went crazy in November 2007 increasing the demand for houses, the market followed suit and went a little bit crazy too. At that time, a household would have been NZ$187 a week better off renting.
