'I'm still renting': Emmy winner Ayo Edebiri on how she stays humble

By Weston Blasi

Owning a home in today's housing market is no longer a sign that someone has 'made it'

'I'm still renting.'

That was actress Ayo Edebiri answering how she stays humble after winning a Golden Globe, a Critics' Choice award and now an Emmy for her work on the TV show "The Bear."

Edebiri's comments at the Emmy Awards ceremony on Monday night seem to refer to the long-held belief that renting is not as financially savvy as owning a home because a tenant is not building equity. Renting, the thinking goes, might imply that a person hasn't "made it" yet. Emmy or not.

Don't miss: 'The Bear' cooking with gas at Emmys as FX show and its cast rack up trophy wins

But buying a home in the past couple of years has become more difficult because of skyrocketing prices and rising interest rates.

And that's led to the price gap between renting and buying hitting its widest point since 2000, according to analysis by real-estate technology platform Cadre.

It was 62% more expensive to buy a home per month than to rent one in July 2023, according to Cadre.

The median sale price of an existing home in the U.S. in November was $387,700, according to the National Association of Realtors, amid talk of possible rate cuts in 2024.

Meanwhile, the median asking rent in the U.S. that month fell to $1,967, according to Redfin, representing the biggest decline in over three years.

Because of this discrepancy between monthly mortgage and rent payments, Edebiri shouldn't feel bad about renting right now.

See: The No. 1 market for first-time home buyers is a lakeside suburb of Rochester, N.Y.

See also: 'I'm getting cold feet': I'm single and make $120,000 a year. Can I afford a $500,000 home in Florida?

Edebiri's salary for her work on "The Bear" isn't public information, but she is slated to secure a significant raise for the third season of the show.

Edebiri, 28, whose other work includes a role on the TV show "Abbott Elementary" and voice-acting performances in the animated films "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem," was also asked if she dreamed of winning acting awards as a kid.

"She didn't dream of nights like this," Edebiri said of her younger self. "She sort of dreamed of just, like, dental insurance."

Read on: Meet the guppies: Young house hunters who are giving up on ever buying a home.

-Weston Blasi

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01-17-24 2322ET

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