Whether to buy or rent is not always an easy decision, so I’ve been meaning to pass along this nifty NY Times calculator that provides you with a quick and easy calculation whether competing buy or rent offers make sense. This related David Leonhardt article that addresses a number of the issues, including the following observation:

Clearly, there are benefits to owning a house beyond the financial, like the comfort of knowing you can stay as long as you want or can fix the roof without permission. But real estate has been sold as more than a good way to spend money. It has been sold as a canít-miss investment. Back in 2005, near the peak of the market, the chief economist of the Realtorsí association, David Lereah, published a book called ìAre You Missing the Real Estate Boom?î The canít-miss argument was wrong then, and it may still be wrong today.

Check it out. Felix Salmon provides further analysis.