Is it cheaper to rent or buy a home in Mississauga right now?

Should you buy a home or continue to rent in Mississauga?

That is the question considered in a new report from real estate brokerage Zoocasa.

Zoocasa determined the cost difference between buying and renting in 35 Toronto neighbourhoods and surrounding GTA cities and regions.

Not surprisingly, with the Bank of Canada interest rate hikes, mortgage payments are high across the GTA.

But at $6,801, Mississauga has one of the lowest monthly mortgage payments in the GTA when looking at average home prices for May 2024.

Areas with the highest average monthly mortgage payments include King ($8,848), Oakville ($6,943), Richmond Hill ($6,381), Aurora ($6,257), and Stouffville ($6,140).

In these places renting is the more cost-effective option. In King, for example, mortgage payments are 170 per cent higher than average rent.

With the average rent at $3,150 in Mississauga, renting is more affordable. But a renter may choose to buy a home to get into the real estate market and build equity. A good way to start could be a condo, which hit an average price of $626,081 in June.

Within all neighbourhoods in Toronto, it is more affordable to rent than buy, with some neighbourhoods having a more than $3,000 difference between average rent and the average monthly mortgage payment, according to the report.

The average home and rental prices for the first quarter of 2024 were sourced from the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board.

The monthly mortgage payments were calculated using the relator.ca mortgage affordability calculator, assuming a 25-year-amortization, a 20 per cent downpayment and a five-year fixed rate of 4.64 percent.

Some areas of the GTA were excluded from this report due to insufficient data on average rate payments. Halton Hills, Caledon, New Tecumseth, and the City of Toronto do not have data for all four apartment types.

See the full report from Zoocasa here.

Lead photo: Ivan Samkov