To rent or buy in L.A.

Cool map from Trulia.com that compares the median sale price of a two-bedroom apartment with the median rental price of the same. From those two numbers comes the rent/buy ratio. Higher ratios mean renting is a better option; lower ratios favor buys. In L.A., the rent/buy ratio is 20, based on rentals of between $2,000 and $2,500 a month and sales of $400,000 to $500,000. That makes renting a somewhat better proposition (home prices remain comparatively high, despite the mortgage meltdown). In NY, the ratio is 31 - by far the highest in the country - which makes renting far more affordable than buying. But in Vegas, where you can buy a house for under $100,000, the ratio is only 6. This is a broad brush, of course, but it does provide a sense of the real estate market is various cities (the greener the bubble, the better it is to buy).