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Open toolRent vs Buy Calculator
Compare renting and buying under an entered cash-cost scenario. Review financing, ownership costs, rent increases, and assumed sale proceeds over your horizon.
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How Rent vs Buy Calculator works
Two cash-cost models are compared over the same entered horizon.
Buying cash cost adds down payment, closing costs, mortgage payments, and selected running costs, then subtracts assumed sale proceeds after costs and remaining debt. Renting cash cost sums annual rent with the entered yearly increase.
A simplified cash-cost comparison. It excludes investment returns on cash, tax deductions, rent deposits, utilities, moving costs, inflation in ownership costs, and transaction timing. Do not use it alone for a housing decision.
How to use Rent vs Buy Calculator
Prepare the purchase, ownership, sale and rental assumptions on matching time periods.
Configure the comparison assumptions
Enter home financing, the comparison horizon, starting rent and rent growth, ownership costs, closing costs, appreciation, and sale costs. Keep annual expenses separate from monthly HOA. The down payment cannot exceed home price, and the horizon is entered in whole years.
Home price
Calculate both cash-cost scenarios
Select Calculate and read which entered scenario has the lower estimated cash cost. The page totals each model over the same horizon. The result depends on the supplied assumptions and is not a forecast or a complete housing decision.
$120,534.10
Review sale proceeds and exclusions
Read Buy net cash cost, Rent total cash cost, Estimated sale price, and Remaining mortgage. Sale proceeds after costs and debt reduce the buying model. Investment returns, tax effects, transaction timing, and several changing ownership expenses are excluded.
Buy net cash cost
Compare renting and buying over different time horizons
The model compares entered cash costs and does not determine an individual's housing choice.
Compare two time horizons
Keep the purchase, rent and cost assumptions fixed while changing years to compare. Review the sale price and remaining mortgage for each run. This shows how the model's chosen endpoint changes the comparison without predicting what will happen to a real property.
Compare home appreciation assumptions
Run the same scenario with different assumed appreciation rates and compare net buying costs. The output reflects the sale proceeds under each assumption. Treat those rates as scenarios rather than evidence of future property values or a reason to prefer one outcome.
Reconcile the ownership inputs
Check annual tax, insurance and maintenance against the monthly HOA input before judging the main difference. The model keeps those amounts constant across the entered years. It cannot infer future repairs, cost changes or the actual arrangements of a particular home.
What net buying cash cost includes
Read the buying total with assumed sale proceeds and remaining debt.
Buying cost includes the down payment, closing costs, mortgage payments and entered running costs, less estimated sale proceeds after selling costs and remaining debt. It is a net cash model, so sale assumptions belong with the cost figure.
The comparison excludes investment returns on cash, tax effects, rental deposits, utilities and moving costs. It also does not model inflation in ownership expenses. A displayed cost advantage cannot settle a housing decision on its own.
Check periods and omitted costs
Review omitted costs and scenario assumptions before using the comparison.
The down payment cannot exceed the price, and the mortgage term and comparison years use whole years. Review whether annual expenses and monthly charges reached the correct fields before treating a surprisingly large difference as a finding.
Rent growth and home appreciation are entered assumptions. The calculator does not retrieve a market forecast or compare local properties. Keep uncertainty and costs outside the model in your review of any actual housing choice.
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Open toolRent vs Buy Calculator: common questions
Answers about using Rent vs Buy Calculator and understanding its results.
Does buying cost include home equity?
Yes. The estimated sale proceeds minus the remaining mortgage balance reduce the buy-side net cash cost.
Does the tool predict home prices?
No. Appreciation is an assumption you enter, not a forecast.
Does the model include returns on an invested down payment?
No. It is a cash-cost comparison and omits investment opportunity cost, tax effects, several changing ownership costs, and transaction timing.
Are ownership expenses increased each year?
The entered property tax, insurance, maintenance, and HOA amounts are held constant in this model. Rent increases and home appreciation use separate entered assumptions.
Use Rent vs Buy Calculator
Compare renting and buying under an entered cash-cost scenario.