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With the rental market strengthening, the median monthly rent outpaces the monthly mortgage payment on the median newly-bought home in most of Connecticut, according to a National Association of Realtors analysis.

NAR calculated the median mortgage payment for the Hartford metropolitan statistical area – which includes Hartford and Middlesex counties – at $1,152.80. At the same time, citing CoStar data, the NAR analysis pegged the region’s median monthly asking rent at $1,401.20, a ratio of 0.8.

Elsewhere in Connecticut, the mortgage-to-rent ratio was similar. For New London County, those figures were $1,154.70 and $1,375.10, respectively, creating a mortgage-to-rent ratio of 0.8. For New Haven County, they were $1,183.40 and $1,502.70, yielding the same ratio. Only in Fairfield County were the incentives reversed, with the median mortgage payment on a new home in the area sitting at $2,591.40 and the median monthly asking rent sitting at $2,450.40

In total, NAR’s analysis means it is cheaper to rent than buy in only one part of the state even as home prices sit at record highs, potentially giving those who can still afford to buy a home another reason to do so, for now. Apartment listings portal site Apartment List’s most recent analysis of September asking rents showed the median asking rent on a two-bedroom unit in the city of Stamford was up 12 percent on a year-over-year basis last month while the same figure for New Haven was up 14.6 percent over the same time frame.