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Rent vs Buy Calculator
Compare renting and buying with mortgage costs, rent growth, appreciation, sale costs, and invested savings.
Buying assumptions
Renting assumptions
Advanced assumptions
Buying assumptions
Renting assumptions
Market assumptions
Net worth over time
Annual cash outflow
Year-by-year comparison
| Year | Home value | Loan balance | Buy wealth | Rent wealth | Advantage |
|---|
Interpret your rent vs buy estimate
The decision point shows when buying is estimated to overtake renting under your assumptions. It is a planning model, not a prediction of home prices, rent growth, or investment returns.
Inputs that matter most
- Time in home: buying usually needs time to overcome transaction costs.
- Mortgage rate: changes monthly ownership cost and total interest.
- Home appreciation and rent growth: can swing the comparison heavily.
- Investment return: affects the value of cash kept by renting.
Common mistakes
- Treating the decision point as a guaranteed date.
- Underestimating maintenance, repairs, taxes, or HOA dues.
- Ignoring selling costs when comparing future net worth.
- Assuming all rent savings or ownership savings will actually be invested.
When this estimate can be misleading
The estimate can be misleading if local prices, taxes, insurance, rent growth, investment returns, or your expected stay length are very different from the assumptions entered.
Scenarios to try
- Try staying 3, 5, 7, and 10 years.
- Lower appreciation to test a flat housing market.
- Raise maintenance or HOA costs for older homes or condos.
- Change investment return to see opportunity-cost sensitivity.
Next-step utilities
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.
Rent vs Buy Calculator features
- Compare buying a home against continuing to rent.
- Model home price, down payment, mortgage rate, and loan term.
- Model rent, rent growth, home appreciation, and investment return assumptions.
- Adjust closing costs, selling costs, property taxes, insurance, maintenance, and HOA dues.
- Include PMI and other ownership assumptions in the buying scenario.
- Review the decision point between renting and buying.
- Compare net worth over time for each path.
- Chart annual cash outflow for rent and buy scenarios.
- Use a year-by-year table to inspect detailed assumptions and outcomes.
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.
M = L \cdot \frac{r(1+r)^n}{(1+r)^n - 1}
L is the loan amount, r is the monthly mortgage rate, and n is the number of monthly payments. At 0% interest, the loan is divided evenly over the term.
\operatorname{PMI} = \begin{cases} \frac{L \cdot p}{12}, & \frac{B}{H} > 0.8 \\ 0, & \frac{B}{H} \le 0.8 \end{cases}
PMI is estimated from the original loan amount while the remaining loan balance is above 80% of the purchase price.
C_b = M + T + I + R + A + \operatorname{PMI}
T is property tax, I is homeowners insurance, R is maintenance, and A is HOA dues.
\Delta = (V - B - S + O) - (Q + D)
V is home value, B is loan balance, S is selling costs, O is owner-side invested savings, Q is renter-side invested savings, and D is the returned security deposit.
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, PMI, and HOA dues. Principal payments build equity, while interest, taxes, insurance, maintenance, PMI, HOA dues, closing costs, and selling costs are treated as costs of ownership.
The PMI assumption follows the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's guidance on conventional PMI cancellation. Its home loan toolkit also supports comparing taxes, insurance, closing costs, and other ownership expenses alongside the mortgage payment.
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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