Compare the true cost of buying versus renting the same home over time
Fill in the Home Ownership and Rental Costs tabs on the left to see the comparison.
Enter mortgage details and click "Calculate" to generate the amortization table.
Fill in the Home Ownership tab on the left to see total ownership costs.
Fill in the Rental Costs tab on the left to see total rental costs.
Fill in the inputs to see investment return comparison.
This calculator answers the question "should I rent or buy?" for your specific numbers rather than the national averages that most online guides use. It takes the home price, your down payment, mortgage rate, property tax, insurance, HOA, maintenance, and expected home appreciation on the buying side, and on the renting side it takes your rent, renters insurance, rent growth, and the return you'd earn by investing the down payment instead. It then runs both scenarios side by side and tells you which comes out ahead at the end of your planned time in the home.
The sticker price of a home dramatically understates what you actually spend. A realistic cost of ownership includes:
Comparing rent to a mortgage payment alone is misleading. In the renting scenario the calculator invests the money you didn't spend — the down payment plus the gap between the all-in ownership cost and rent in any month where owning is more expensive — and compounds it at the return rate you choose (a high-yield savings rate for the safe case, something closer to historical equity returns for the aggressive case). That's the only honest way to run the comparison.
Monthly mortgage payment:
Net equity at exit (buying side):
Portfolio value at exit (renting side):
A common shorthand says you need to stay in a home at least five years for buying to beat renting, because the 7%–12% round-trip cost of buying and selling takes that long to earn back through equity and appreciation. That's a decent rule of thumb for average markets, but the real break-even depends on three things: your price-to-rent ratio (home price ÷ annual rent — under 15 favors buying, over 21 favors renting), your mortgage rate, and your expected appreciation. In high-cost coastal metros the break-even can stretch to 7–10 years; in affordable Midwestern markets it can be as short as 3.
The decision depends on how long you plan to stay, local price-to-rent ratios, mortgage rates, your down payment, and the return you could earn by investing the money instead. In most markets you need to stay about 5 years for buying to beat renting after closing costs, maintenance, and selling costs. The calculator runs that break-even for your specific numbers.
True ownership cost includes mortgage principal and interest, property taxes, homeowners insurance, HOA fees, maintenance (typically 1%–2% of home value per year), utilities, buying closing costs (2%–5%), selling costs (5%–7%), and the opportunity cost of your down payment. The calculator accounts for all of these.
A conservative baseline is a high-yield savings account at roughly 4%–5% APY. A more aggressive comparison uses the long-run S&P 500 average of about 10% nominal before taxes. The calculator lets you pick a rate so you can model both.
Appreciation builds equity, which is one of the biggest advantages of buying. The historical US average is around 3%–4% per year, but it varies widely by metro. The calculator applies your chosen appreciation rate and then subtracts selling costs so the comparison is apples-to-apples.
The 5-year rule is a shorthand that says buying usually only pays off if you stay in the home for at least five years, because closing and selling costs (combined 7%–12%) take that long to be offset by equity and appreciation. Your actual break-even depends on local rents, home prices, and rates.