Rent vs. Buy Calculator
Should you rent or buy? This calculator runs a year-by-year simulation of the real cost of each — mortgage, taxes, maintenance, and selling costs on the buy side vs. rent + investing the down payment on the rent side — and tells you which one actually leaves you wealthier.
Buying makes you $44,947 wealthier over 10 years.
Buying starts saving you money in year 7.
Compare Your Situation
Break-Even Year
Year 7
When buying overtakes renting
Home Equity at End
$281,954
Home value $587,148
Rent at Year ${horizonYears}
$3,494
Up from $2,600 today
Cumulative Cash Spent
Renting is orange; buying (after mortgage interest deduction) is navy. Where they cross is your break-even point on pure cash. This chart ignores equity and investment growth — see the verdict banner above for the full wealth comparison.
How to use this calculator
Start with the four core numbers in the top section: monthly rent, home price, down payment, and time horizon (how long you'd stay in the home before moving).
The verdict banner at the top updates instantly. It tells you which choice makes you wealthier at the end of the horizon — and the break-even year tells you when buying crosses over to become the better choice.
Open Advanced Assumptions to fine-tune the inputs that most affect the verdict: interest rate, home appreciation, investment return on the down payment (opportunity cost), maintenance, selling costs, and marginal tax rate.
The cumulative cash-spent chart shows renting vs. buying as two lines over your horizon. The renting line rises steadily (rent + insurance); the buying line rises faster early (mortgage, tax, maintenance) but the equity you're building offsets it. The verdict banner does the full wealth math including equity; the chart is just the raw cash out of pocket.
How it works
The rent-vs-buy question is actually four questions bundled together: Will home prices go up? What are interest rates? How long will you stay? What would you do with the money you'd spend on a down payment if you didn't buy?
Renting costs: monthly rent (which rises with inflation each year) plus renter's insurance. But renting also has an upside most calculators miss: you're not tying up tens of thousands of dollars in a down payment. That money, if invested in stocks, could return 7%+ per year on average.
Buying costs: the mortgage (principal + interest), property taxes, homeowner's insurance, maintenance (typically 1% of home value per year), and HOA if applicable. These are partially offset by the mortgage interest deduction if you itemize. The big win for buying is equity — part of each payment pays down principal, and the home itself typically appreciates 3-4% per year. But when you sell, you pay ~6% of the sale price in realtor and closing costs, which erodes your equity.
The rule of thumb: if you'll stay less than 5 years, renting usually wins (selling costs and closing costs dominate). If you'll stay 7+ years, buying usually wins. The 5-7 year zone is where the specific numbers matter most.