Rent vs Buy Calculator

The rent-versus-buy decision is one of the most significant financial choices most people make, and it is far more nuanced than it first appears. The common wisdom — that buying is always better than renting because you are building equity — ignores the substantial costs of homeownership that never appear in a mortgage payment: property taxes, insurance, maintenance, HOA fees, and the opportunity cost of the down payment. A rigorous comparison must account for all of these on both sides.

Our calculator models the full financial picture over your chosen time horizon. On the buying side, it calculates your monthly mortgage payment, cumulative taxes, maintenance, and HOA fees, while tracking home equity as the property appreciates and the loan balance decreases. On the renting side, it models rent increases over time and — critically — the investment growth of the capital you would have used as a down payment if instead placed in a diversified portfolio.

The result is a clear break-even analysis: the exact year at which buying becomes cheaper than renting given your inputs, plus a net-worth comparison showing where you stand at the end of your time horizon under each scenario. This is the same analysis a fee-only financial planner would run — and it often produces surprising results depending on local housing prices, appreciation rates, and how long you plan to stay.