Business: Miami top big city to buy home now..

IT MAKES MORE SENSE TO BUY A HOME IN MIAMI RATHER THAN TO RENT, ACCORDING TO A NEW REPORT FROM TRULIA, WHICH RANKS MIAMI AS THE NATION’S TOP BUYER’S MARKET.

Is there any upside to having a sky-high foreclosure rate, double-digit unemployment and a tight credit market? According to a respected real estate firm, these elements help make Miami the top market in the nation to buy a home rather than to rent.

Miami has moved up two spots since last year to become the nation’s most attractive market to become a homeowner rather than renting, a new report by real estate research firm Trulia found. The study, released Monday, compared home prices and rental rates in the nation’s 50 largest cities to determine where homeownership made the most financial sense.

Potential buyers are starting to take note of South Florida’s shifting buy-vs.-rent dynamic. Arden Shank, director of Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida, said first-time homebuyers from Broward and Miami-Dade counties are flooding his office.

“We have more families coming through the homebuyers preparation process than we have ever had,” he said. “A lot of people who were priced out of the market before can now afford to buy a home.”

Trulia came up with the ranking by comparing the cost of buying a median-priced 2-bedroom, 2-bath home with the cost of renting a similar property for a year. Cities were ranked as either “buy” or “rent” based on the ratio of buy-to-rent costs.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/01/25/2032762/miami-top-big-city-to-buy-home.html

MiamiHerald/Olorunnica/ 01/26/2011

Florida Latin Connection/ Arnoldo Varona, Editor

* Business: Miami top big city to buy home now..