Calculator

Renting against buying, evenly

Over the years I will actually stay, which leaves me better off?

This does not ask whether buying is better in the abstract. It asks what your net worth looks like after a specific number of years, on assumptions you can see and change, with both sides treated the same way.

Buying

Percent of the home’s value.

Renting, and the future

What either household earns on money not spent on housing.

Buying overtakes renting—The month the buyer’s net worth passes the renter’s

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Buyer net worth at the horizon—
Renter net worth at the horizon—
Difference—
Net worth, buyer against renter

Read this before you trust the number

Three of the inputs above — appreciation, rent growth and investment return — are guesses about a future nobody knows. Set appreciation to zero and the answer usually flips. That is not a flaw in the calculator; it is the actual state of the question. Use it to find out how sensitive your decision is, not to settle it.

What this page assumes, and where it comes from

Every field starts from a placeholder you can change. The interest rate is a round starting number, not a quote, not an average, and not tied to a date — this site publishes no rates. The tax, insurance and mortgage-insurance rates are typical orders of magnitude, not your county’s or your insurer’s.
Both households are given the same budget every month. Whichever is cheaper that month invests the difference at the same return — including the months when owning is cheaper than renting, which is the case a one-sided model quietly drops.
The buyer’s position is the home value less selling costs less the remaining balance, plus anything they invested. The renter’s position is the buyer’s up-front cash — down payment and closing costs — invested from day one, plus anything they invested since.
Taxes, insurance and maintenance are grown with the property value. Rent is grown at its own rate.
Conventional PMI is modelled as ending when the SCHEDULED balance reaches 80% of the original purchase price — the point the Homeowners Protection Act lets you request cancellation. Automatic termination is 78%. Both are measured against the original value, so appreciation does not count.
Every figure this calculator produces is an illustration. It uses the published rules for amortisation and mortgage insurance, and states its assumptions on the page, but it cannot know your credit profile, your county’s tax assessment or an insurer’s pricing. Treat the shape of the answer as useful and the exact dollar as a placeholder.

Questions this raises

Why does this one have so many inputs?

Because the answer is entirely made of assumptions and hiding them would be dishonest. Appreciation, rent growth and investment return are guesses about the future; a calculator that fixes them behind the scenes is telling you its opinion and calling it arithmetic. Change them and watch the answer move — that movement is the real finding.

What does “both households on the same budget” mean?

Every month, the two households spend the same total. Whichever is cheaper that month invests the difference at the same return. That includes the months when owning is cheaper than renting — a comparison that only lets the renter invest a surplus, and quietly drops the buyer’s, is stacked before it starts.

What is not in here?

The mortgage-interest and property-tax deductions, which only matter if you itemise; capital-gains treatment on a primary residence; transaction costs on the way in beyond the closing costs field; the cost of a bad landlord; and the value of being able to move in eight weeks. Some of those are large.

Ask a person about this

A real lender would want these five things before it could say anything useful.

This form is a demonstration. Submitting it validates your entries and shows you the confirmation state. Nothing is saved, nothing is sent, and nobody will call you. See the README for the single seam where real delivery would be wired in.

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