17 housing markets where it's smarter to buy than rent

Sometimes it pays to buy a house.

While the homeownership rate in the US has sunk to an almost 30-year low, in some parts of the country it's actually cheaper to buy a house than rent

Real estate research firm RealtyTrac analyzed data from 504 counties in larger housing markets around the US and found that buying was cheaper in just under 58% of the counties.

They analyzed government real estate data and calculated the amount of average wages in each market a person would have to spend on renting the median 3-bedroom house versus buying it.

We've looked at RealtyTrac's data and complied the 17 large counties where it makes most sense to buy. We've only included counties with populations over 300,000 and with a difference between buying instead of renting is more than 10% of wages.

Over half of the list is from Florida. But you'll have to go further inland to find the greatest savings.

Check out the full list below and you can see RealtyTrac's full report here.

(Note: We've included counties with populatons over 300,000 and savings on buying instead of renting is more than 10% of wages. Additionally, average monthly house cost was computed using an insurance payment rate of 0.35% of median home value and a property tax rate of 1.04% of median home value.)