Home Prices by US Metro area

Healthcare Economist published a very useful spreadsheet of home prices and rankings by metropolitan area. It includes multi-year trends, by US region and broken into Single-family homes and Condominiums. I guess I should go searching to see if this "Healthcare Economist" ever actually talks about Healthcare ;)
(of course, as with every post here, we can't guarantee the information is right)...

Site:	Healthcare Economist
Page/Post:	Cost of Living II: Home Prices
Spreadsheet:	Home Prices by metro area

Picking a US State of residence using the tax rates as criteria

Jason Shafrin, author of the Healthcare Economist blog, provides some really interesting information to help you pick which State you might want to live in using the Tax burden as criteria. He published a State-by-State Tax Burden spreadsheet to help guide you understand all the tax rates which might impact you as a resident - not just income tax rates.

Site:	Healthcare Economist
Page/Post:	Cost of Living I: State Taxes
Spreadsheet:	State Tax Rates & Rankings

Rent or Buy - a calculator

David Ratajczak came up with a model to make (from his perspective) an informed decision.... He says: “At what price is renting preferable to purchasing a house? There are many factors influencing the price of a home or apartment, and the relative valuation of homes remains a matter of both art and preference. But we can still ask, for a given home at a given price, what would be the equivalent rent that I should be willing to pay for that home.” For now, he link below is published only and can't be saved with formulas, but maybe David will offer his working version online (I'll ask him).

Site: David Ratajczak's Blog
Page/Post: Rent Versus Buy
Spreadsheet: Rent vs. Buy Model

Buy versus Rent Calculator

Silver Fern Homes, in Boulder, Colorado, posted a cool spreadsheet back in late 2006 which helps you compare buying versus renting. Plenty of data needs to be plugged in by you (the user of the calculator) to let it help with your particular situation... so you should Get Your Own Copy of this one, so you can edit the assumptions. See their blog post for a full description. As per the note at the top of the spreadsheet: "THIS MODEL HAS BEEN IMPROVED. FOR THE LATEST VERSION (still FREE), PLEASE EMAIL osman@silverfernrealty.com".

Site: Silver Fern Realty - or - Their Blog, entitled The Silver Fern
Page/Post: Buy Versus Rent Using the Model
Spreadsheet: Buy-vs-Rent Spreadsheet
Spreadsheet Template: Click Here to Get Your Own Copy