Compare the total cost of buying a home against renting over the same period — including mortgage, taxes, maintenance, appreciation, and the opportunity cost of your down payment.
What it means
Most rent-vs-buy comparisons just subtract rent from mortgage payment and call it a day. That ignores property tax, maintenance, insurance, closing costs, and — critically — the opportunity cost of tying up a down payment instead of investing it. This calculator runs all of those forward year by year.
If you'll move in three years, renting almost always wins. The breakeven year tells you the minimum stay length where buying pulls ahead. If you're not confident you'll stay past that point, rent.
Change rent growth from 3% to 5%, or home appreciation from 4% to 2%, and the answer can flip. Use this as a sensitivity test, not a prophecy.
FAQ
No — the tax code change in 2018 raised the standard deduction high enough that most homeowners no longer itemize, making this deduction less impactful than it used to be. Add it manually if you're confident you'd itemize.
That's real, but unquantified here. If you'd pay $20k extra to stop having a landlord, this calculator can tell you whether you are paying $20k extra — and then it's your call.
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