Rent vs Buy Calculator

A fixed-rate mortgage payment stays flat for the life of the loan while rent typically rises every year under the rent-increase assumption, so the cost gap between the two options widens in buying's favor the longer you stay. Home equity also keeps building through both appreciation and mortgage paydown the longer you hold the property, both of which need time to compound meaningfully.

It starts by investing the full down payment you would have otherwise put into the home, then adds the monthly savings whenever renting costs less than buying would have that same month — mortgage, property tax, insurance, and maintenance combined. If buying is actually cheaper in a given month, no additional amount gets invested that month, though the already-invested balance keeps compounding at your assumed investment return.

The renting scenario's final wealth is built almost entirely from compounding whatever gets invested at your assumed investment return, so a higher assumed return meaningfully grows the renting outcome over a long time horizon, while a lower assumed return shrinks it. Since home appreciation and investment return are independent assumptions you control separately, a small change to either one can be enough to tip the comparison the other way.

Treat it as a structured way to compare scenarios under your own assumptions, not a definitive verdict — real outcomes depend on home appreciation and investment returns that are inherently uncertain and can vary significantly from historical averages, plus factors this calculator doesn't model like moving costs, tax deductions, lifestyle flexibility, and how your actual circumstances might change. Run it with a few different reasonable assumptions to see how sensitive the recommendation is before treating either answer as settled.