1. The house
2. Owning costs
3. Renting and investing
4. Taxes and your plan
Result
Questions people ask
Is it cheaper to rent or buy a home?
It depends on how long you stay, the price-to-rent ratio, the mortgage rate and what the cash you would put into a house could earn elsewhere. This tool runs both households month by month with the same total monthly spending, invests the renter's difference, and shows the year buying pulls ahead and the net-worth gap at the year you plan to leave.
What is the rent-vs-buy break-even point?
The first year in which the buyer's net worth (sale price less selling costs less the loan balance) exceeds the renter's investment account. Closing costs, selling costs and early interest-heavy payments mean buying usually loses for the first few years even when it wins later.
Why does the model include investing the down payment?
Cash tied up in a house is not earning anything else. The renter keeps the down payment and closing costs invested at the return you type, and also invests every month that renting costs less than owning. Leaving this out is the most common reason rent-vs-buy comparisons favour buying.
Do I get a tax break for the mortgage interest?
Only if your mortgage interest, property tax (up to the state-and-local cap) and other itemized deductions together exceed your standard deduction. Most households do not, so the model gives owning a tax saving only when itemizing beats the standard deduction. Type your own deduction figures to match your filing status.
What rent makes buying and renting equal?
The tool solves for it: the starting monthly rent at which both households finish with the same net worth at the horizon you set. If comparable rents are above that number, buying wins on these assumptions; below it, renting wins.
Is this financial advice?
No. It is arithmetic on assumptions you type, and home prices, rents, rates and investment returns are uncertain. It does not know your job security, family plans, local market or taxes beyond the simple deduction model. Check the result with a qualified adviser and your lender's actual figures.
Not decided
Whether you should buy. The model ignores your job and family plans, the cost of moving, local market swings, a rent-controlled or below-market rental, refinancing, extra principal payments, capital-gains tax on a sale above the home-sale exclusion, tax on the renter's investment gains beyond the after-tax return you type, and the value of owning for its own sake. Home prices, rents, rates and returns are uncertain; use the grid to see how much the answer moves.
Sharing the place? The roommate rent splitter divides rent fairly when the rooms are unequal.
Related tools: the home sale exclusion calculator, the mortgage points break-even calculator the HELOC vs cash-out refinance calculator and the roommate rent splitter.