Rent vs Buy Calculator

Purchase Details

Purchase Price ($)

Down Payment (%)

Mortgage Rate (%)

Mortgage Term (years)

Closing Cost Rate (%)

Property Tax Rate (%)

Annual Homeowners Insurance ($)

Monthly HOA ($)

Annual Maintenance (%)

Home Appreciation (%/year)

Selling costs (% of sale price)

Rental Details

Monthly Rent ($)

Annual Rent Increase (%)

Annual Rental Insurance ($)

Broker Fee (months of rent)

Investment Details

Down Payment Amount ($)

Expected Market Return (%)

Marginal Tax Rate (%)

Percent of the down payment and closing costs you'd invest instead A renter keeps the money a buyer would put down. How much of it would you invest?

Percent of the rent-vs-own difference you'd invest Each month, renting usually costs less than owning. How much of that difference would you invest?

Assumptions & what's not included

How the numbers work

Equal budgets: each month, whichever path costs less invests the "percent of the difference" you set (default 100%) at the market return; the rest is treated as spent, so both paths still spend the same total money. The renter also starts by investing the down payment and closing costs, scaled by the "percent of the down payment and closing costs you'd invest instead" (default 100%; the rest is treated as spent). At 0% difference, only the up-front money is invested.
Net worth: for buying, sell the home (value minus remaining loan minus selling costs) plus any side investments; for renting, cash out the investments. The headline break-even is the first year the two lines cross. Buying usually starts behind because of closing and selling costs.
Selling costs default to 6% of the sale price, which covers agent fees and other seller closing costs such as transfer taxes.
Loan: fixed rate, standard monthly payments.
Home value grows each year at the appreciation rate you enter.
Property tax: your tax rate times the assessed value. Assessed value starts at the purchase price and grows at 2% a year or your appreciation rate, whichever is lower (Prop 13).
Maintenance is a percent of the home's current value. Home insurance, HOA and renter's insurance stay flat (they don't rise with inflation).
Tax savings: married filing jointly, itemizing. Counts mortgage interest on the first $750,000 of the loan, plus property tax up to the $40,400 SALT cap, and only the amount above the $32,200 standard deduction, times your marginal rate. These are 2026 figures. Owning costs shown are after these savings.
Rent: year 1 is 12 months of rent; it rises by your rent-increase rate each year after. The broker fee (months of rent) is paid in the first month of renting.
Investment growth is compounded monthly and not taxed.

Not included