The New York Times has a new interactive infographic designed to help people determine when it makes financial sense to buy a home rather than rent a home. Users of the interactive infographic can enter variable data such as home price, interest rates, rent prices, rental rate increases, and housing market changes to determine when it’s best to buy a home rather than rent. Users can also account for information like insurance rates, condo fees, and opportunity costs.

Applications for Education
Consumer economics is one of the topics that I really think high schools need to teach more often. My school eliminated it as a course quite a while ago, but I still try to work it into my Civics curriculum. While most high school students won’t be buying a home anytime soon, the Buy vs. Rent interactive infographic could still be useful for demonstrating the concepts of inflation, interest rates, and market changes.

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
The History of Credit Cards in the United States
Two Cool Economics Infographics
FDR and the Banking System