Mortgage Calculator
Estimate your monthly mortgage payment with taxes, insurance, PMI, and HOA fees.
Rent vs Buy Calculator
Compare renting and buying with mortgage costs, rent growth, appreciation, sale costs, and invested savings.
Buying assumptions
Renting assumptions
Decision point
Advanced assumptions
Buying assumptions
Renting assumptions
Market assumptions
Net worth over time
Home equity and invested savings after sale costsAnnual cash outflow
Mortgage and ownership costs compared with rentYear-by-year comparison
Projected annual snapshots| Year | Home value | Loan balance | Buy wealth | Rent wealth | Advantage |
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How to use this rent vs buy calculator
Compare buying a home with continuing to rent under the assumptions you enter.
- Enter key buying assumptions such as home price, down payment, mortgage rate, and appreciation.
- Enter renting assumptions such as monthly rent and rent growth.
- Open advanced assumptions to adjust closing costs, taxes, insurance, maintenance, HOA dues, selling costs, and investment returns.
- Review the decision point, net worth chart, annual cash outflow chart, and year-by-year comparison.
What rent vs buy comparisons show
The result is not a prediction of the housing market. It is a planning model that shows which assumptions matter most.
The most important inputs are usually how long you stay, the mortgage rate, home appreciation, rent growth, and investment returns.
Buying can build equity, but it also adds transaction costs and ownership costs. Renting can preserve cash for investing, but rent can rise over time.
How the comparison works
The calculator estimates buying wealth, renting wealth, and annual cash outflow year by year.
Buying wealth is estimated as sale proceeds after the remaining loan balance and selling costs, plus any monthly savings invested when owning is cheaper than renting.
Renting wealth starts with the cash not used for a down payment and buying closing costs, then adds monthly savings when renting is cheaper than owning.
Monthly ownership cost includes principal and interest, property tax, insurance, maintenance, and HOA dues. Principal payments build equity, while interest, taxes, insurance, maintenance, HOA dues, closing costs, and selling costs are treated as costs of ownership.
Rent vs buy FAQ
What does the decision point mean?
It is the estimated stay length when buying starts to produce more net worth than renting under the current assumptions.
Why include investment returns?
Renting often leaves more cash available upfront or each month. The calculator compounds that available cash so the comparison includes opportunity cost.
Does this include taxes?
It includes property taxes as an ownership cost. It does not estimate income tax deductions because those depend on filing status, itemization, local limits, and other personal details.
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