If Young purchased the new condominium, she would pay monthly condo fees of $1,055 per month, plus property taxes of $300 per month on the unit. Unlike when renting, she would also be responsible for repairs and general maintenance, which she estimated would average $600 per year.

If she decided to purchase the new unit, Young intended to provide a cash down payment of 20 per cent of the purchase price. There was also a local deed-transfer tax of approximately 1.5 per cent of the purchase price, and a provincial deed-transfer tax of 1.5 per cent, both due on the purchase date. (For simplicity, Young planned to initially ignore any other tax considerations throughout her analysis.) Other closing fees were estimated to be around $2,000.

In order to finance the remaining 80 per cent of the purchase price, Young contacted several lenders and found that she would be able to obtain a mortgage at a 4 per cent "quoted" annual rate¹ that would be locked in for a 10-year term and that she would amortize the mortgage over 25 years, with monthly payments. The money that Young was planning to use for her down payment and closing costs was presently invested and was earning the same effective monthly rate of return as she would be paying on her mortgage. Young assumed that if she were to sell the condominium say, in the next two to 10 years she would pay 5 per cent of the selling price to realtor fees plus $2,000 in other closing fees. financial analysis of the buy-versus-rent decision, Young realized that her first task would be to determine the required monthly mortgage payments. Next, she wanted to determine the opportunity cost (on a monthly basis) of using the lump-sum required funds for the condominium purchase rather than leaving those funds invested and earning the effective monthly rate, assumed to be equivalent to the mortgage rate. She would then be able to determine additional monthly payments required to buy the condominium compared to renting, including the opportunity cost.

Young wanted to consider what might happen if she chose to sell the condominium at a future date. She was confident that any re-sell would not happen for at least two years, but it could certainly happen in five or 10 years' time. She needed to model the amount of the outstanding principal at various points in the future two, five or 10 years from now. She then wanted to determine the net future gain or loss after two, five and 10 years under the following scenarios, which she had determined were possible after some due diligence regarding future real-estate prices in the Toronto condo market: (a) The condo priceremains unchanged; (b) The condo price drops 10 per cent over the next two years, then increases back to its purchase price by the end of five years, then increases by a total of 10 per cent from the original purchase price by the end of 10 years; (c) The condo price increases annually by the annual rate of inflation of 2 per cent per year over the next 10 years; and (d) The condo price increases annually by an annual rate of 5 per cent per year over the next 10 years.

a.How would you estimate the mortgage payments?

b.What is the required change in monthly payments if Young decides to buy rather than continue to rent?