Are you interested in the differences and benefits between buying and renting a home in Cheyenne, WY? Let’s dive into the numbers here:

Average sale price for a home in Cheyenne today is $352,791. With at least 5% down on that average price at the current interest rate of about 5.7%, the monthly payment would be $1945.22, and then depending on taxes and insurance the average price would be about $2,300.00 max a month to own a home here in Cheyenne, WY. When rates go back down to let’s say 4%, after paying some loan off, you refinance. Your payment would go down to roughly less than $1,600 a month before taxes and insurance! Interest rates are a big deal but here is the thing with what high interest rates are doing to the market right now that buyers should still be excited about and eager to purchase a home, when interest rates are low, that is the ONLY deal you get on a home. Higher rates, means you have less competition so you have a higher potential to be able to get a better price, possible equity in the home already, closing costs covered by the seller, more repairs done, etc. And that is not the best part, because you can get all that, and then refinance with a lower rate when they drop, you will basically have the best of both worlds!

Now, let’s talk about renting. Renting is great for many reasons depending on where someone is in their life. Maybe you are building better credit, maybe you do not want to live in that area for very long or you are not sure if this is the location you want to invest money and time into. Or, maybe you are just trying to get through school and have other plans then to settle down and buy and house, whatever it may be for someone’s reasoning to rent instead of buy, they are justified. We have personally used all these excuses to not buy a house in our past! However, if the only reason you feel that you cannot buy a house is simply because you feel you cannot afford a house right now, here are some numbers to look at:

We just talked about what the average mortgage payment looks like in Cheyenne today. With a quick search of average apartment cost, looks like it is close to $1,000 a month for a small one bed apartment. With a quick Zillow search, houses for rent here range from a small home for $1,400 a month to a large home for $3,050 a month, for an average rent cost of $2,225! That is roughly the exact same as the average monthly payment to buying a home in Cheyenne, but the only difference is, rent will only go up from there. We discussed early that your mortgage can go down with a quick refi, and you are not investing that money! Your money doesn’t go to pay someone else’s mortgage when you own a home, it goes towards your own home that increases in value, on average here in Cheyenne, about 7% a year! That is free money!

If another reason to not buy is you are saving for a down payment, very understandable. And some people, such as my husband and I, had a very strict plan for purchasing a home with X amount down, X year loan and loan type, X price, etc. so yes, buying a home should be done after some great consideration and planning. However, if down payment is the only concern, Wyoming has great down payment assistant programs and closing costs assistant programs that are basically another loan, with 0% interest, forever. Yes, I said interest free! That is another free money portion of this home buying process! It is like America wants you to own a home!

So, what fo you think? Are the pros outweighing the cons here? Are you ready to buy?