Rent vs Buy Calculator
Compare the real cost of renting and buying over the years you'd actually stay — including the equity you get back when you sell.
✏️ These numbers were filled in from a shared link — change anything to make it your own.
How this comparison works
Renting is simple: rent for each year, grown by your rent-increase rate. Buying is the honest version — every dollar out the door, minus everything you get back at sale:
cost to buy = down payment + closing costs + all payments + taxes + insurance + maintenance + HOA − net sale proceeds
Net sale proceeds are the projected home value minus selling costs and your remaining loan balance. That credit is why buying wins over long horizons and loses over short ones — the fixed costs of entering and exiting get spread thinner the longer you stay.
Buying? Size the loan with the Mortgage Calculator. Renting it out instead? Run the Rental Property Calculator.
A projection, not a guarantee — appreciation and rent growth are assumptions, not facts. Excludes tax deductions, PMI, and investment returns on the down payment. General information, not investment advice.
Frequently asked questions
Is it cheaper to rent or buy?
It depends almost entirely on how long you stay. Buying carries large up-front costs — down payment, closing costs — and large exit costs when you sell. Those are spread over your years of ownership, so the longer you stay, the cheaper buying gets relative to renting. This calculator finds the year those two lines cross.
What is the break-even point for buying a house?
The break-even is the year at which the total cost of owning (payments, taxes, insurance, maintenance, and transaction costs, less the equity and appreciation you get back at sale) drops below the total cost of renting over the same period. For many markets it lands somewhere around 4–7 years, but your inputs drive it.
Does this include the equity I build?
Yes. At the end of the period the calculator assumes you sell: it takes the projected home value, subtracts selling costs and your remaining loan balance, and credits that back against your ownership cost. That is what makes the comparison honest — mortgage payments are not purely an expense the way rent is.
Why does buying look bad if I move in two years?
Because closing costs on the way in and selling costs (typically ~6%) on the way out are both charged against a very short holding period, and early mortgage payments are mostly interest rather than principal. Short stays rarely favor buying unless prices rise sharply.