Rent vs. Buy Calculator

Buying generally wins if you’ll stay 5+ years and the monthly cost of owning is similar to or lower than rent. Renting wins if you’ll move in 1–3 years, you can’t cover all owner costs (mortgage + tax + insurance + maintenance), or your savings rate is higher than long-term home appreciation in your market.

Mortgage P&I + property tax + homeowners insurance + maintenance + HOA. Many first-time buyers underestimate by 25–30% because they only think about the mortgage. Use 1% of property value annually for maintenance; more for older properties.

Break-Even Months = Down Payment ÷ Monthly Savings. If owning is $300/month cheaper and your down payment is $60,000, break-even is 200 months (~17 years). The shorter, the more obvious "buy" wins. Caveat: this calculator doesn’t model appreciation or principal paydown — both shorten the real break-even.

Long-term US average is 3–4% nominal. On a $400,000 home, that’s $12,000–$16,000 per year of equity growth — often the biggest financial advantage of owning. This calculator focuses on the cash-cost comparison; for full ROI including appreciation and principal paydown, use the Rental ROI Calculator.

Conservative analyses include it. If you’d otherwise invest $80k at 7% expected return, you give up ~$5,600/year in expected investment income by tying it up in a house. This calculator doesn’t model this — but you can mentally add ~$400/month to the "Own" side for a $80k down payment.

Property tax and mortgage interest deductions still exist but are now subject to a $10,000 SALT cap and the standard deduction is $29,200 (married filing jointly, 2026). Many homeowners no longer itemize, which means tax deductions wash. The calculator does not assume any tax benefit — that’s upside if you do itemize.