Renters might be flushing a future down payment down the drain the biggest perk might be costing you
Renting rather than owning a home has benefits and drawbacks, but one upside that is universally affirmed is that renting affords you flexibility.A 30-year-mortgage sounds scary, while a one-year lease means you can pack up and go elsewhere—including to a place with lower monthly costs, if you need to. But what if that flexibility is part of what makes buying a home so unaffordable? The costs of your flexibility are rarely put down as a line item for your monthly or yearly housing costs, and yet they can easily run into the thousands of dollars with application and broker fees, hiring movers, productivity loss, and much more. Flexibility is a good thing, but you need to understand what it’s costing you so you can decide whether it’s worth it in the long run. The costs of renting a place are well known: your monthly rent, utilities, maybe renter’s insurance.But what about everything that went into getting you into your home, and everything that will go into getting you out? “Costs include, but are not limited to, application and brokerage fees, a new security deposit paid before recovering your original security deposit, hiring a mover, lost wages from time taken off work, and an overlap in rent payments,” says Natalia Bassova, founder and CEO of Resort Real Estate Inc.
“On average, most move-ins will run anywhere from $1,500 to $4,000, and can be broken down to approximately $60 to $170 per month when amortized over a period of 24 months.”These costs, and the headaches that come with them, are all too common.According to a 2026 survey by SpareFoot, 53 percent of Americans who moved in the spring were forced to pay for two homes at once, spending an average of $2,291 to make the transition work.
In addition, 40 percent of Americans who moved in that time frame used temporary storage while waiting to move into a new home.This speaks to another issue for renters: Despite the “flexibility” of a rental, you still sign a lease.If you nee...