How to save $2,000 a month in L.A.: rent

Some Los Angeles-area renters may feel a secret shame of not owning their homes, but maybe they should be bragging. Right now, renting is a much better deal. People in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim metropolitan area looking to get into a smaller home on average would save more than $2,000 a month by renting rather than buying, according to the latest estimates from Realtor.com. That’s a lot of potential savings to invest and hold until interest rates and home prices cool. Last month, for homes with up to two bedrooms, the gap between the median rental cost per month and monthly cost of buying was the highest in the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S., according to the real estate listing and data company. The median cost to buy in the Los Angeles area was $4,836 per month, while the median rent for the same size homes was $2,787, a $2,049 difference. The average gap in the U.S. was $858. In New York, it was $1,823.Jiayi Xu, a senior economist at Realtor.com, said starting out with a rental may help those still hoping to buy a home in the long run. “The monthly savings, like the $2,000 renters enjoy relative to buying [in L.A.], can be put directly towards the down paymen...