Compared what it costs to rent now, it takes home buyers takes just 3.3 years to hit break-even after buying a house in Walpole, 3.5 years in Quincy, 3.7 years in Holliston and 4 years in North Andover, to name a few examples.
Of course, while home prices have come down a bit in many towns across the Boston area since the bubble burst, we have not seen the same dramatic plunge in values that many other parts of the country have been hit with.
Instead, rising rents may be playing as much a role as falling prices in making buying a better alternative now.
Asking rents across the Boston area posted a 10.3 percent year-over-year increase in June, Trulia recently reported.