One of the most important factors in deciding whether to rent or buy is how long you plan to stay in the home. Each property has a certain number of years after which it becomes financially smarter to buy than rent.

In densely populated cities on the east and west coast, you often have to stay for a long time to justify buying instead of renting. (The New York Times calculator is currently the best tool on the web for estimating this.)

Check out your neighborhood heat maps here…

Photo credit: Ian Muttoo