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Fills in local home prices, rents and property tax. Every number stays editable.
Start with a ZIP code
Enter one and this fills in the median home price, rent and property tax where you live — then every number stays yours to change. No ZIP handy? Type a home price into “Your numbers” instead.
How this is calculated
- The comparison is money you never get back. Each side simply pays its own way, so the answer turns on how much of what you spend is recoverable — not on whether the two monthly payments happen to line up.
- Owning is charged only for the spending that buys nothing: interest, property tax, insurance, HOA, upkeep, mortgage insurance and the fees on both ends, less whatever the home gained in value. Your down payment and every dollar of principal are left out, because they turn into equity and come back when you sell — charging them here would count them twice.
- Buying adds up the down payment, closing costs, mortgage, property tax, insurance, HOA and maintenance, then credits back everything the sale returns: the price it fetches, less selling costs, less whatever is left on the loan.
- Renting adds up the rent, and none of it comes back. Nothing else is added or credited: the renter is not assumed to invest the down payment they never handed over, because that is a guess about what someone does with their money rather than a cost of renting. Set an investment return above 0% and the comparison will credit both sides for what they did not spend — whichever pays less in a given month invests the difference, and only the growth counts, after capital gains tax.
- Below a 20% down payment the lender charges mortgage insurance, priced off the original loan and billed until scheduled payments bring the balance under 78% of what you paid. Appreciation does not cancel it early.
- Property tax, maintenance and home insurance are repriced each year as the home appreciates. Home appreciation defaults to 0%, so they hold flat — while rent still rises at its own rate.
- Not modeled: the mortgage interest deduction, the capital gains exclusion when you sell a home you lived in, and inflation — every figure is in future dollars. Treat this as a comparison, not tax advice.
Common questions
- Is it cheaper to rent or to buy?
- It depends on how long you stay. Buying carries large one-off costs — closing costs going in, selling costs coming out — that are spread over however many years you own. Stay long enough and the equity you get back outweighs them; sell early and it usually does not. This calculator finds that crossover for your numbers rather than assuming one.
- How does this calculator compare the two?
- By how much money you never get back. Buying spends the down payment, closing costs, mortgage, property tax, insurance, HOA, maintenance and any mortgage insurance, then credits back what the sale returns: the price the home fetches, less selling costs, less the remaining loan balance. Renting spends the rent and gets none of it back. Nothing is credited for investing what either side did not spend unless you set an investment return above 0%. The side that gives up less money wins.
- What is the break-even point?
- The first year in which buying has cost less than renting. Before it, renting is ahead; after it, buying is. It moves earlier with faster home appreciation and later with higher rates, higher rent growth, or steeper closing and selling costs.
- Can buying win even when the monthly payment is higher?
- Yes, and it often does. A mortgage payment is part interest and part principal, and the principal is money you keep. Ownership can cost more every single month and still come out ahead over the full period, because a share of that spending is recoverable and none of the rent is.
- Does it count what a renter could earn investing the down payment?
- Only if you ask it to. By default the investment return is 0%, so the answer is built purely from money that changes hands — whether a renter actually invests the down payment they never handed over is a guess about behaviour, not a cost of renting, and it swings the result more than any other input. Set a return above 0% and the calculator holds the down payment and closing costs invested, adds to it every month renting costs less than owning, and does the same for the buyer in months when owning is cheaper. Only growth counts as money back, taxed at the capital gains rate you set, because moving cash into a brokerage account is not the same as earning it.
- Does it include PMI on a small down payment?
- Yes. Below a 20 percent down payment the calculator charges mortgage insurance as a share of the original loan, and stops charging it once scheduled payments bring the balance to 78 percent of the purchase price — the point at which lenders must cancel it automatically. Appreciation does not end it early, because the legal cutoff runs off the original price rather than the current value.
- What does this calculator not include?
- The mortgage interest deduction, the capital gains exclusion on selling a home you lived in, and inflation — every figure is in future dollars rather than today's. Treat the result as a comparison rather than a verdict.