SMMC News & Events Blog

This blog highlights news, events, and informative articles on personal finance from University of Illinois System's Student Money Management Center. Feel free to navigate to different categories with the list of topics on the right or search for a specific topic next to the view all link below.

Buying or Renting a Home, Part 1: The Big Picture

Is renting really "throwing money away," and is buying always the path to wealth? In Part 1 of our two-part series, Andrea and Kimber are joined by Kari Beyer of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR), Division of Banking. They cover the current Illinois and U.S. housing landscape, what a renting or owning budget really includes, how equity works, and the basics of renting, from credit checks to reading a lease. Part 2 will cover how to buy a home.

You can also listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Prior Related Episodes:

• Ep. 114: The Role of Loan Servicers
• Ep. 86: The Illinois Community Reinvestment Act
• Ep. 85: The Federal Community Reinvestment Act (CRA)
• Ep. 83: Lines of Injustice: What is Redlining?
• Ep. 64: Help for Renters
• Ep. 63: Help for Homeowners
• Ep. 37: Renting!
• Ep. 5: Understanding Credit

Relevant Get Savvy: Grow Your Green Stuff Webinars (YouTube)

• Buying vs. Renting a Home (May 2026)
• Read Before You Sign: Renting & Leasing (August 2026)
• Mastering the Consumer Credit Game
• More details about the Get Savvy: Grow Your Green Stuff webinar series

Resources

• Student Money Management Center (SMMC) University Resources
• U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
• AnnualCreditReport.com: free credit reports

Other References

• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. (n.d.). Making the decision to rent or buy
• Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. (n.d.). Rental vacancy rate in the United States [Data series RRVRUSQ156N]. FRED Economic Data.
• Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. (2020). The state of the nation's housing 2020. Harvard University.
• Internal Revenue Service. (n.d.). Publication 936: Home mortgage interest deduction
• Kochhar, R., & Cilluffo, A. (2021, August 2). As national eviction ban expires, a look at who rents and who owns in the U.S. Pew Research Center.
• Pendley, A. (2019). State and federal laws every renter should know. Stacker.
• Realtor.com. (2026). Illinois housing market data
• Thompson, D. (2021, March). 'This is unprecedented': Why America's housing market has never been weirder. The Atlantic.
• University of Illinois System Institute of Government and Public Affairs. (n.d.). Policy spotlight: Mitigating housing instability during the COVID-19 pandemic
• U.S. Census Bureau. (n.d.). Household Pulse Survey
• U.S. Census Bureau. (2019). American Housing Survey table creator [Table 9].
• U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. (n.d.-a). Measuring housing insecurity in the American Housing Survey. HUD User.
• U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. (n.d.-b). Tenant rights by state