The cost of buying a home is rising three times faster than the cost to rent ‘The monthly cost of buying a home — which includes mortgage payments, taxes and insurance — jumped 14% between July 2017 and July 2018, according to a report released Thursday by Realtor.com. Comparatively, it only became 4% more expensive to rent a home over that same period.’ Despite the rising costs of homeownership here in RDU which have been attributed to rising mortgage interest rates and rising home prices, it is still very affordable in some parts of the Triangle to own your own home. In fact, due to limited availability of single family detached homes to rent, it still may be cheaper to own a home than to rent. But for how long?