Should you buy or rent a home in Bradenton? New study has an answer

Just how quickly does renting start to cost more than buying a home?

According to a new study by SmartAsset, a financial technology company, the Bradenton-Sarasota-North Port area is the best place to buy a home in Florida and the 40th best metropolitan area in the U.S.

Here, it only takes bout 2.3 years for the cost of rent to exceed the cost of buying a house.

The Bradenton-Sarasota-North Port area narrowly beat out Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater and Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford. Homeowners in the Bradenton-Sarasota-North Port area also are the best in the state at paying their mortgage on time, according to a recent report by CoreLogic.

SmartAsset came to its conclusion by using average rent and home prices throughout every major metro in the U.S. with a population greater than 200,000. The company says that the cities with the shortest time to break even are the best places to buy.

Here are the top 10 cities in the U.S. to buy a house based on how long it takes rent to break even, according to SmartAsset:

• 1. Little Rock, Ark. (1.3 years)
• 2. Louisville/Jefferson County, Ky. (1.3 years)
• 3. Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin, S.C. (1.3 years)
• 4. Tulsa, Okla. (1.3 years)
• 5. Gary, Ind. (1.3 years)
• 6. Columbia, S.C. (1.5 years)
• 7. Cincinnati, Ohio (1.5 years)
• 8. Baton Rouge, La. (1.6 years)
• 9. New Orleans-Metairie, La. (1.6 years)
• 10. Omaha-Council Bluffs, Neb. (1.6 years)

See details of the study, along with an interactive map on the SmartAsset website.

This story was originally published October 26, 2017 at 9:26 AM with the headline "Should you buy or rent a home in Bradenton? New study has an answer."