[VBprogrammer]

I didn't suggest that buying always makes sense. I was only trying to point out that comparing month to month costs isn't a fair comparison, since a significant part of the money you put into a mortgage becomes available to you in the fullness of time. With rent, once you've paid it it's gone.

[ido]

You're right, sorry I just wanted to reiterate as i often experienced that people in other countries don't understand how regulated the market is the German speaking countries.

E.g. many large american cities like chicago would have purchase prices similar to berlin but 2-3x the rental prices due to these regulations keeping Berliner rents artificially low.

Trying to actually check my vague memory: if numbeo[0] is anywhere near accurate (I anecdotally believe it's close enough to give you a good rough estimate) Berlin is both drastically more expensive to buy than Chicago (almost 50% more expensive) and drastically cheaper to rent (a bit over 40% cheaper).

Obviously this completely changes your buy vs rent calculous!

[0]https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?cou...