Rent vs Buy Calculator

Real-world use cases

• Decide before taking a 2-year job posting

  You've been offered a role in another city for two years. The listings make buying look cheaper per month than renting, so it feels like a no-brainer. Plug in the $400,000 price, 20% down, 6.5% rate, and set the stay to 2 years. The verdict flips: with roughly 8% round-trip transaction cost, owning's net cost runs tens of thousands above renting and investing the difference, and the break-even year sits far past your departure. Rent, and put the down payment in an index fund.

• Find the break-even year for a forever home

  You expect to stay 20-plus years and want to know when buying stops being a gamble. Enter the home price, a realistic 3% appreciation, and bump the stay to 20 years. The break-even year — often around year 6 to 9 — tells you the point past which equity reliably beats renting. Raise appreciation to 6% and watch break-even slide to year 4. Now you know the minimum commitment that makes the purchase pay off.

• Stress-test your assumed appreciation

  Real estate agents love to quote past appreciation. Test how fragile the buy case is: set appreciation to 1% and the home barely outruns inflation, so renting and investing at 6% often wins outright. Bump it to 5% and buying pulls clearly ahead. Because the whole comparison recomputes instantly, you can see the exact appreciation rate where the decision flips for your city — and judge whether that rate is plausible.

• Compare two cities on the same screen

  A $900,000 home in a coastal city renting for $3,200 has a very different rent-to-price ratio than a $280,000 home renting for $1,500 inland. Load the big-city preset, read the verdict, copy the share link, then load the mid-size preset. The low-yield coastal market usually favors renting unless appreciation is high; the cheaper inland market often favors buying within a few years. Two links, two honest answers.

• Pressure-test a "rent is dead money" argument

  A relative insists renting is always a waste. Open the tool, enter your actual numbers, and show the net-cost line for both paths. When the renter invests the down payment at 6% and you only plan to stay five years, owning's net cost frequently lands higher once selling costs hit. The point isn't that renting always wins — it's that the answer depends on years, rate, and return, and now you can show the math instead of arguing.

Common pitfalls

• Comparing monthly mortgage to monthly rent and stopping there. A $2,000 mortgage versus $2,000 rent is not a tie — buying adds property tax, maintenance, and a ~8% round-trip transaction cost, while renting frees up the down payment to invest. This tool compares total net cost over your whole stay, which is the only fair comparison.

• Leaving investment return at a number you won't actually achieve. If you'd really keep the down payment in checking earning 0%, don't enter 7%. The renter's edge comes entirely from compounding that cash; an unrealistic return manufactures a fake win for renting. Match it to where the money would genuinely sit.

• Ignoring how long you'll truly stay. The single biggest driver of the answer is years. A great buy at 15 years can be a clear loss at 3 years because transaction costs haven't been recovered. Enter your honest expected stay, not your optimistic one.

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