Rent vs Buy Calculator

The calculator runs a month-by-month simulation comparing the true all-in cost of buying a home versus renting over your planned horizon. It accounts for mortgage payments, property taxes, insurance, maintenance, HOA fees, PMI, closing costs, home appreciation, rent increases, and the opportunity cost of your down payment invested instead.

The break-even point is the year at which the cumulative cost of buying becomes lower than the cumulative cost of renting. Before that point, renting has been cheaper on a cost basis. After it, buying has been cheaper. If you plan to move before the break-even point, renting is usually the better financial choice.

Yes. Home appreciation is applied monthly and compounds over your planned horizon. It affects your equity at sale, your net sale proceeds, and the overall financial comparison. The historical US average is roughly 3–4% annually, though this varies significantly by market.

Opportunity cost is what you give up by using money one way instead of another. When you buy a home, your down payment and closing costs are no longer available to invest. This calculator optionally models the growth of those funds in an investment account so you can compare the true financial outcome of each path.

The national average home appreciation rate is approximately 3–4% per year over long periods. High-demand metros may average 5–7% or more, while slower markets may average 1–3%. Use a conservative estimate for your specific market. The sensitivity grid in the results shows how the outcome changes if appreciation is 1% higher or lower.

Buying builds equity, but it also comes with large upfront costs, ongoing maintenance, property taxes, and the opportunity cost of your down payment. If you plan to move soon, or if home price growth is slow relative to investment returns, renting and investing the difference can outperform buying even accounting for equity.

PMI is applied automatically when your down payment is less than 20% of the home price. The calculator tracks your amortization schedule and removes PMI once your loan balance drops to 80% of the original home value, which is when you can typically request cancellation under the Homeowners Protection Act.

Yes. Use the Share Results button to copy a link that encodes all your inputs. Anyone who opens that link will see the calculator pre-filled with your exact scenario. Use Save / Print to print or save a PDF of your results.

The sensitivity grid shows how the buy/rent outcome changes when you vary two key assumptions simultaneously, typically home appreciation and rent increase rate. Green cells indicate buying wins, blue cells indicate renting wins, and the numbers show the break-even year. It helps you understand how robust your decision is to different market scenarios.

This is the net financial difference between buying and renting after accounting for what your down payment and closing costs would have grown to if invested in the market. If buying shows a positive number, buying built more wealth than renting + investing the difference. It is the most comprehensive single measure of which path created more wealth.

This calculator is designed for primary residences. Investment properties have different tax treatment (depreciation deductions, rental income), financing rules (higher rates, larger down payment requirements), and maintenance dynamics. The results here do not account for rental income or investor-specific tax benefits.