Rent vs. buy calculator
Compare renting with buying on equal footing. The model includes the mortgage, taxes, insurance, maintenance, utilities, transaction costs, home appreciation and the return earned by investing the money either choice leaves free.
Advanced options
Scenario comparison
Stay-or-move timeline
Cost breakdown
Renting
| Cost | Monthly |
|---|
Buying
| Cost | Monthly |
|---|
Net-worth crossover
Buying net worth minus renting net worth: above zero buying leads, while below zero renting leads. The active scenario’s lasting crossover is banded.
Price–rent sensitivity
Rent–buy net worth
After-tax investments plus the returned deposit for renting, against after-tax investments plus net sale proceeds for buying. The active scenario’s lasting crossover is banded.
Net-worth components
Equity and mortgage balance
What the home is worth after the mortgage, beside what is still owed, in today’s dollars.
Annual cash-flow gap
The difference in annual housing cash costs. Above zero renting leaves more money available to invest; below zero buying does.
Annual housing costs
The cash each strategy uses in every year. Upfront and sale costs are kept in the cumulative chart below.
Renting
Buying
Unrecoverable costs
Rent, insurance and utilities against buyer interest, taxes, insurance, upkeep, closing and the cost of selling at each possible exit. Recoverable deposit and mortgage principal are left out.
Annual projection
| Year | Scenario | Rent cash cost | Buy cash cost | Mortgage | Equity | Sale proceeds | Rent net worth | Buy net worth | Higher net worth |
|---|
What this model assumes
- Both strategies begin with the same available cash and receive the same housing budget each month. Whatever one does not spend is invested at month end.
- All results are in today’s dollars. Rent rises by its own rate; fixed insurance, HOA and utility costs rise with inflation from year two; home value and investments compound monthly.
- The mortgage is fixed-rate. Borrower-paid PMI is set only at origination and automatically terminates at the scheduled 78% date or the month after the amortization midpoint, whichever comes first. Purchase price is used as the original-value proxy. This baseline does not model a qualifying borrower’s 80% cancellation request, payment delinquency, high-risk or government-insured loans, appraisals, or servicer-specific rules. See the CFPB PMI guide.
- The security deposit is returned in full without growth. Basis additions use cash and increase sale-tax basis but do not automatically add to home value. Cash-only purchase costs remain upfront unrecoverable cost and are excluded from basis; do not enter the same cost in both fields.
- Tax fields are effective rates supplied by you. The model does not infer filing status, itemization, statutory caps or a primary-residence exclusion.
- Total economic cost is the after-tax value a no-housing investment account would have reached with the same resources, minus the strategy’s ending net worth. Markets, home prices and actual costs will not follow a steady path.
Calculations are estimates based on your assumptions and are not financial or investment advice. Actual results may differ. Read the financial disclaimer.