Rent vs Buy Calculator
Compare renting against buying over your actual timeline, counting equity, appreciation, selling costs and what your down payment could have earned invested.
The single most decisive input.
Owning costs about $3,008.75/month all-in here — comparing that to rent is the honest monthly comparison, before equity enters the picture.
The most emotionally loaded math in personal finance
Americans inherit the belief that renting is throwing money away and buying is always the adult move. The arithmetic is less romantic — both paths throw money away, just at different line items. Rent is pure cost; so are mortgage interest, property tax, insurance, maintenance and the 6% toll agents collect on the way out. The genuine question is which pile of unrecoverable costs is smaller over your actual timeline, once the buy side gets credit for the equity that survives.
The two levers that decide it
Years staying dominates everything. The fixed costs at both ends of ownership need years to amortize, which is why the same house flips from “rent wins” to “buy wins” somewhere between years four and eight in most markets. If your five-year plans have historically been two-year plans, weight that honestly.
The opportunity cost is the line most comparisons omit. A down payment locked in drywall cannot compound in the market, and charging the house for that forgone growth is what separates honest math from a realtor’s brochure. Watch the result flip as you move that one assumption.
Use the monthly figure too
The all-in monthly ownership cost shown in the inputs — payment, tax, insurance, maintenance — is the fair sticker to hold against rent, and it is routinely 30–40% above the mortgage payment alone. If that number would strain the budget, the long-run comparison is academic; the affordability check comes first, and renting while saving remains a strategy, not a failure.
How this is calculated
Rent side = rent compounding annually over your stay Buy side = payments + tax + insurance + maintenance − equity recovered at sale (after 6% selling costs) + growth the down payment forgoes by not being invested
Frequently asked questions
- Is it better to rent or buy right now?
- The answer is personal arithmetic, not a market opinion — it turns mostly on how long you stay, the price-to-rent ratio where you live, and what your down payment could earn elsewhere. Under about five years, renting usually wins because transaction costs never amortize.
- Why does how long I stay matter so much?
- Buying carries enormous fixed costs at both ends — closing costs going in, roughly 6% in agent commissions and fees coming out. A short stay spreads those over too few years for equity to catch up, which is why the years-staying input moves this result more than any rate does.
- What is the opportunity cost line?
- The growth your down payment gives up by sitting in a house instead of the market. Comparisons that skip it systematically flatter buying — $84,000 compounding at 7% for a decade is real money, and an honest comparison charges the house for it.
- Does this include the mortgage interest deduction?
- No, deliberately. Since the 2017 standard deduction increase, only a small minority of homeowners itemize, so for most buyers the deduction is worth exactly nothing. If you itemize at high income and high rates, buying scores somewhat better than shown.