The phrase “It’s always better to buy than rent” is so deeply embedded into American economic minds that it’s probably right up there with loving baseball and Grandma’s apple pie. Post real estate bubble, that’s hardly the case.

In fact, that sort of blindly followed truism probably helped fuel the fire of irrational behavior, and as an unintended consequence, sent potential home buyers (via herding behavior) straight into the fire like a bug to the bug zapper.

I’m not saying it’s never better to rent than buy, nor am I saying it’s better to always buy than rent. I’m saying you need to do the research and you should understand that multiple variables are going to come into play. Such as:

1. Length of time you’ll be in the home.
2. Total cost of home
3. Monthly mortgage payment vs. monthly rent payment.
4. True cost of home ownership (taxes, insurance, maintenance, etc.) vs. maintenance free living as a renter.
5. Percent decline of home from real estate bubble prices (not a factor in non bubble locations).

There are many more depending on the type of home you buy, it’s age, and where you’re buying.

So if you’re not a research junkie and you’re not willing to do the research yourself, the New York Times published a solid sliding bar infographic on buying vs. renting that can assist you in making a very important financial decision.

You’ll need to know a few details like annual home price change and annual rental price change, but that can probably be found on Zillow.com or Trulia.com with a little digging. Please note, your answer is highly dependent upon the variables you enter, so the reliability of your answer is only as good as the data you have available.