rent vs. buy calculators

Here's the best calculator I've found so far on rent v. buy:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/business/buy-rent-calculator.html

You list several different areas. Basically if you're holding for at least 5-10 years, you should see some appreciation pretty much anywhere in Manhattan when you go to sell.

By contrast, you know if you pay rent for the next 5-10 years, you will not get that money back.

i like nytimes the best. of course, no one knows the appreciation rate looking forward. this is your judgement.

Not sure why people need such a complicated multi-variable calculator.

Calculate today's yield on the place.

"You list several different areas. Basically if you're holding for at least 5-10 years, you should see some appreciation pretty much anywhere in Manhattan when you go to sell.

By contrast, you know if you pay rent for the next 5-10 years, you will not get that money back."

Of course, what if you pay twice as much to own as to rent? How are you going to get that money back? The above "logic" is a sure way to waste a lot of money on housing in order to convince yourself that you're not wasting money on housing.

I am NOT going to pay a lot for this muffler.

Yields aren't that great, which makes sense since interest rates are so low. However buying to live in can still make sense vs renting.