Money Minute: To Buy or To Rent? Apple Wins Latest Round

Is it better to buy or rent your home? It depends on where you live.

Deutsche Bank (DB) has ranked 54 U.S. cities on the value of buying a home versus renting. In Cleveland, it's 50 percent more expensive to rent than buy. The other top markets favoring buyers are: Rochester and Buffalo, New York; Tampa Bay-St. Petersburg in Florida; and Chicago. At the other end of the scale, top five markets favoring renters are all in California: Oakland, San Jose, Orange County, San Diego and San Francisco.

%VIRTUAL-article-sponsoredlinks%A jury in California ruled late Friday that Samsung was guilty of violating two key patents held by Apple in the long-running war between the two smartphone makers. It awarded Apple $120 million in damages, but that's just a fraction of the $2.2 billion Apple (AAPL) had been seeking. Most analysts say the decision is pretty much a draw, with the two companies likely to battle in court for years to come. And the California case isn't over quite yet. The judge must still decide if either company should be required to withdraw any products from the market.

Separately, Apple and two other tech giants -- Microsoft (MSFT) and Google (GOOG) -- say they will begin to notify customers when they get a government subpoena for information. Civil libertarians are praising the move, but the government is none too happy. Officials say the notifications could compromise investigations by alerting suspected criminals.

Here on Wall Street last week, the Dow Jones industrial average (^DJI) and the Standard & Poor's 500 index (^GPSC) gained nearly 1 percent, while the Nasdaq composite (^IXIC) rose more than 1 percent.

The growing list of potential bidders for the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team now includes a company that wants to jump into the big time sports business. Skechers (SKX), the shoe company known for its fashionable styles, says it might want to use an NBA franchise as a way to enter the market for basketball shoes. The company recently scored a coup by providing the shoes worn by Boston Marathon winner Meb Keflezighi.

-Produced by Drew Trachtenberg.