Rent vs Buy Calculator
Free rent vs buy calculator comparing the true cost of renting and buying over time. See the break-even year, hidden ownership costs, and invested-difference math with no signup.
Example Scenarios
$2,200 vs $450k
10% down • 7% • 10 yr
Starter Home
$1,800 rent • $320k
High Rent Market
$3,000 rent • 20% down
Short Stay
3-year horizon
Rent vs Buy Inputs View Results
Rent vs Buy Verdict
Net Wealth Position Over Time
Before the break-even crossing renting is ahead; after it buying pulls ahead. Curves net out selling costs at each year, the amount you would actually walk away with.
Verdict by Time Horizon
Net position gap (buyer minus renter) at each horizon. Positive favors buying, negative favors renting.
Itemized Cost Stacks Over Horizon
How This Is Calculated
Both paths are turned into a net wealth position at every year, the only fair comparison. The renter invests the buyer's up-front cash (down payment plus closing costs) and any month the buyer pays more, the difference is invested too, all at your entered return. The buyer's net position is home equity built through amortization and appreciation, net of selling costs, plus any month buying is cheaper. Break-even is the first year the buyer's net position overtakes the renter's.
Everything behind the Rent vs Buy Calculator
Formulas, reference charts, and detailed answers — expand any section you need.
Is It Better to Rent or Buy? The Honest Math
Is it better to rent or buy depends on three inputs more than all others: how long you stay, what the saved difference earns invested, and what the home appreciates. Staying past the break-even year makes buying the wealth-building path; leaving before it makes renting the cheaper one, full stop. The horizon sensitivity row shows the verdict at 3, 5, 7, and 10 years so the answer tracks your actual plans rather than a slogan in either direction.
| Time Horizon | Typical Verdict |
|---|---|
| Under 3 years | Rent, transaction costs dominate |
| 3 to 5 years | Depends, run your exact numbers |
| 5 to 7 years | Often break-even territory |
| 7+ years | Buy, equity and appreciation compound |
Rent vs Buy Calculator: Which Actually Costs Less?
This rent vs buy calculator compares the true multi-year cost of both paths, not just rent against a mortgage payment. The buying side carries maintenance, closing costs, selling costs, and the opportunity cost of the down payment; the renting side gets credit for investing the monthly difference. The rent vs buy calculator nets both into a wealth position for every year and shows the break-even year where buying overtakes renting.
Example: A $2,200 rent against a $450,000 purchase with 10% down at 7% typically breaks even around year 5 to 6; leaving earlier favors renting, staying longer favors buying.
Rent vs Buy Break-Even Calculator: The Year That Decides It
The rent vs buy break-even calculator finds the crossing point of two wealth curves: the renter's, growing through invested savings, and the buyer's, growing through equity and appreciation but dragged by transaction and ownership costs. Buying front-loads roughly 10% of the home price in combined closing and selling costs, which is why short stays lose even when the monthly payment beats rent, and why the break-even year is the single number that decides the question.
Rent vs Buy Calculator With Hidden Ownership Costs
A rent vs buy calculator is only as honest as its cost list. This one models maintenance at 1% of home value annually, roughly $375 monthly on a $450,000 home, plus buying closing costs near 3% and selling costs near 7%, all editable and all itemized. These three lines routinely total six figures over a decade, and skipping them is how the idea that renting is throwing money away survives as advice despite the math.
Rent and Invest the Difference: The Renter's Side Done Fairly
The rent and invest the difference scenario is where most calculators quietly favor buying: when renting costs less per month, that savings plus the entire down payment belongs in the market at your expected return. A $45,000 down payment invested at 7% grows past $88,000 in 10 years, and the renter's curve includes it. Whether renting actually wins then depends on the gap, the return, and the appreciation, which is exactly what the chart settles.
Rent vs Buy Calculator for an Uncertain Timeline
Uncertainty about how long you'll stay is itself an input. When the honest answer is 3 to 5 years, maybe, the sensitivity row is the tool: if renting wins at 3 and buying wins at 7, the decision reduces to how confident you are about staying past the break-even. Buying with a real chance of leaving before it is the expensive gamble; renting while certain you'll stay a decade is the slow one.