If you are considering whether to rent or buy your home in Detroit, the latest listing data might surprise you. 

Detroit and Pittsburgh are the two cities in the top U.S. 50 metropolitan areas where it was cheaper to buy a home than rent a home during January, Realtor.com reports. 

The calculations do not include property taxes and insurance. 

The typical home list price in Detroit was $239,950 during January; resulting in a monthly mortgage payment of $1,252 compared with the median rent of $1,313. 

For Pittsburgh, the median home list price was $229,700 in January, with a monthly mortgage payment of just $1,199. During that same time, the median rent in the Pennsylvania metro area was $1,413. 

"These two markets are, unsurprisingly, the two with the lowest median listing prices of our top 50 metros," Realtor.com senior economist Joel Berner said in the press release. 

There was a surge in rent prices in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, Realtor.com reports. Prices have settled out across the country during the past 18 months, but are still noticeably beyond the levels seen in January 2020. 

"Even though rents are falling, renters are still feeling the pinch from the rapid rent growth of 2021 and 2022," Berner says. "The situation is similar in the for-sale market, where the median listing price has started to fall, but remains well above its pre-pandemic benchmark."