Trulia, a real estate website, finds that home ownership is less expensive in the country's top 100 largest metropolitan areas.
According to the data, it's 38% cheaper for home ownership, which includes mortgage, insurance, taxes and maintenance. Last year, Trulia estimated that it was 35% cheaper.
The gap is slowly widening for two reasons.
"First, in the past year, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate has fallen from 4.8% to 4.3%. Second, rents have risen faster than prices, excluding foreclosures. Together, these trends have made buying even more affordable versus renting than it was last year," said Jed Kolko, Trulia's chief economist.
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