A national real estate firm claims that Honolulu is one of just two major U.S. metropolitan areas where it makes more financial sense to rent a home instead of buying for folks who can’t afford a down payment of at least 10 percent and don’t plan to keep the home for more than five years.

Trulia, a company that sells real estate advertising and services, recently published a report that concluded it is 5 percent cheaper to rent a home in Honolulu for theoretical households that have less than 10 percent of the purchase price for a down payment and move in five years.

However, for buyers who can make a traditional 20 percent down payment and stay in a home for at least seven years, buying was the financially smarter thing to do in all 100 major metropolitan areas covered in the Trulia report.

Trulia said that buying a home is 36 percent cheaper than renting at the national level, though the choice becomes a “tougher call for younger house hunters” who tend not to have as much money for down payments and move every five years on average.

Trulia’s report examined comparative costs and benefits of renting and buying a home that included a variety of assumptions and projections as well as a relative snapshot of home prices and rents.

The result is a generalization that could be different for individual households.

For Honolulu home purchases, Trulia assumed a price of $612,642, a fixed 3.85 percent mortgage rate on a 30-year loan and values for property taxes, closing costs, insurance, maintenance and home value appreciation.

For Honolulu rentals, Trulia assumed a monthly rental rate of $2,500 and values for a security deposit, expected rent appreciation and financial returns on investing money that could have been spent on buying a home.

Trulia’s figures for Honolulu’s home price and rent were based on one month, September, and includes single-family and multifamily houses.

Another recent study produced by academic researchers in Florida suggests that Honolulu’s housing market in recent years has neither really favored renters or buyers.

This study by three researchers at Florida Atlantic University and Florida International University, who produce something called the Beracha, Hardin &Johnson Buy vs. Rent Index quarterly, call Honolulu one of several cities that are a “tossup” when considering whether it’s better to build wealth through home ownership and equity or renting a comparable property and buying stocks and bonds.

The Florida study said the U.S. housing market as a whole is moving to favor renting, though it’s a mix by cities such as Chicago, Cincinnati and Cleveland where buying is significantly better and Dallas, Denver and Houston where renting is significantly better.

In Trulia’s report, the only market besides Honolulu where renting was better than buying for households making less than a 10 percent down payment and moving in five years was San Jose, Calif., based on a median home price of $907,806 and a median monthly rent of $3,500.

San Francisco had the highest home price, $1.1 million, and monthly rent, $4,400, and was 7 percent cheaper to buy a home instead of renting, according to Trulia.

The market where buying a home was the cheapest compared with renting was Houston, where Trulia said it was 46 percent cheaper to buy based on a $162,784 median home price and $1,550 median rent.