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Step 1 of 3

Tell us about your situation

Start with the home you're considering and what you currently pay in rent.

Buying

$

The listed or estimated price of the home.

Renting

$

Your current rent, or a comparable rental in the same area.

$

Usually returned at lease end — capital you can't invest while renting.

$/ year

Defaulting to 0.6% of annual rent (≈ $180/yr). Adjust if you have a specific quote.

Shared

$

Electric, gas, water, internet — applied equally to both scenarios.

Rent vs. Buy Calculator

A step-by-step tool that compares the full financial picture of renting against buying — not just the monthly payment, but the wealth you end up with either way.

How this calculator works

Most rent-vs-buy comparisons stop at the monthly payment, which is the least useful number in the decision. A mortgage payment that looks higher than rent can still leave you wealthier, because part of it buys equity rather than disappearing. And a mortgage that looks cheaper than rent can still leave you poorer once property tax, maintenance, insurance, and closing costs are counted.

This calculator runs both scenarios in parallel over the time horizon you choose, and asks a single question: in each year, how much money would you actually walk away with? It works in four steps.

  1. The home — purchase price, down payment, closing costs, and the selling costs you would pay on the way out.
  2. The mortgage — interest rate, loan term, PMI, and the recurring ownership costs that never show up on a mortgage statement: property tax, home insurance, HOA dues, utilities, and maintenance.
  3. Your finances— current rent, renter's insurance, expected investment returns, home appreciation, inflation, tax rates, and how long you plan to stay.
  4. Results — break-even year, a month-one cost breakdown, and net wealth charts for both paths.

What the results actually tell you

Break-even year

The year at which buying overtakes renting in total net wealth. Before it, renting and investing the difference leaves you ahead; after it, owning does. If your break-even year lands past the point you expect to move, buying is likely the more expensive choice for you — regardless of what the monthly payment looks like. Read the full explanation of break-even.

Monthly cost comparison

What each path costs in the first month, broken down line by line. Owning costs are shown net of the mortgage interest and property tax deductions you would receive if you itemize. Renting costs grow with inflation each year, while a fixed-rate mortgage payment does not — which is why the two lines eventually cross.

Net wealth over time

The core comparison. For the buying path, net wealth is the home's value minus the remaining loan balance, minus selling costs and any capital gains tax owed. For the renting path, it is the down payment and closing costs you never spent, invested from day one, plus any monthly savings from renting, compounded at your expected rate of return.

The assumptions behind the math

Every number below is an input you can change. The defaults are starting points, not recommendations — the regional variation in property tax and appreciation alone is large enough that national averages will misprice most individual situations.

  • Mortgage — a fixed-rate, fully amortizing loan. The payment never changes; the split between principal and interest does, month by month.
  • Maintenance — defaults to 1% of the purchase price per year, a common rule of thumb. Older homes routinely run higher.
  • PMI — applied automatically when the down payment is under 20%, and dropped once the loan balance reaches 80% of the original price.
  • Tax treatment — mortgage interest and property tax deductions are applied only if you indicate you itemize. Property tax deductions are capped at the $10,000 SALT limit. On sale, the capital gains exclusion is $250,000 filing single or $500,000 filing jointly.
  • Selling costs — default 6% of sale price, covering agent commissions and transfer taxes. These are subtracted from the buying scenario in every year, since net wealth means the money you would have after actually selling.
  • The invested difference — the renting scenario assumes real discipline: the entire upfront cost gap, plus every month that renting is cheaper, goes into investments at your stated return. If you would not actually invest that money, the renting path in the real world does worse than it does here.

What this calculator does not model

Being clear about the edges matters more than adding false precision. This tool assumes fixed rates for appreciation, inflation, and investment returns rather than simulating volatility — real markets do not deliver a smooth 3.5% per year. It does not model refinancing, adjustable-rate mortgages, rental income from a spare room, mortgage points, moving costs, or the possibility that the home you buy and the apartment you rent are not equivalent places to live.

It also cannot weigh the parts of the decision that are not financial: stability, the freedom to move for a better job, control over your own space, or how you would actually feel about a large maintenance bill arriving unannounced. That is why the calculator ends with a perspectives step rather than a verdict — the math narrows the question, it does not answer it.

Learn more

If you want the reasoning behind the model before trusting its output, these guides cover it in depth:

Disclaimer: This website is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or legal advice. All results are estimates based on simplified assumptions and user-provided inputs. Actual costs, returns, and outcomes will vary. Please consult a qualified financial advisor before making any real estate or investment decisions.