The rewards that don't show up in a spreadsheet.
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Most rent vs buy calculators only compare your monthly mortgage payment to rent. But the real decision involves dozens of hidden costs on both sides — closing costs, maintenance, property tax growth, opportunity cost of your down payment, broker fees, and more. This calculator models all of them over a 30-year horizon so you can make a fully informed decision.
Enter your local home price, monthly rent, and mortgage rate to get a personalized side-by-side comparison. Adjust assumptions like home appreciation, rent increases, and investment returns to see how different scenarios play out. The what-if toggles let you stress-test your decision against job loss, market downturns, or rate changes.
It depends on home price, rent, mortgage rates, how long you stay, and local market conditions. Generally, buying becomes cheaper the longer you stay due to building equity, but renting and investing the savings can win in expensive markets or short time horizons. This calculator compares both paths including hidden costs most tools ignore.
The breakeven point typically ranges from 3 to 10 years depending on your market. High closing costs, selling costs, and the interest-heavy early years of a mortgage mean you need to stay long enough for equity growth to offset these costs. Use the horizon slider above to find your breakeven year.
Hidden costs include closing costs (2–5% of home price), mortgage interest (especially in early years when most of your payment goes to interest, not principal), maintenance and repairs (1–2% of home value annually), property taxes that increase over time, HOA fees and special assessments, home insurance, and selling costs (5–8%) when you eventually move.
Renters face their own hidden costs: broker fees in competitive markets, rent increases that compound year over year, moving costs every few years, no equity building, dependence on landlord decisions, and lifestyle constraints. This calculator models six categories of renting hidden costs alongside seven for buying.
If you rent and invest the money you would have spent on a down payment, closing costs, and the difference between your rent and what a mortgage payment would be, that investment portfolio can grow significantly over time. Whether it beats homeownership depends on investment returns vs home appreciation in your area, your tax situation, and how long you plan to stay.
The calculator runs a year-by-year simulation for both scenarios. For buying, it models mortgage amortization, property tax growth, maintenance costs, PMI, tax benefits from itemized deductions, and home equity growth. For renting, it models rent increases and investment of the savings (down payment + monthly difference) into a diversified portfolio. It then compares your total net worth under each path.