Rent vs Buy Break-Even Calculator

It first computes your purchase-side monthly costs: the mortgage payment (from standard amortization using your chosen rate/term), property taxes, maintenance, and HOA. On the rent side, it uses your local rent estimate as a constant monthly amount. Then it steps month-by-month through your holding period, accumulating total costs for each option and applying an opportunity cost to reflect what the down payment could have earned if invested.

Because this tool uses a simplified tax model (it focuses on capital gains on appreciation, not detailed mortgage interest deductions), your real tax outcome could differ. Break-even is also highly sensitive to assumed maintenance and selling costs, the mortgage rate in your selected bundle, and how long you plan to stay—buying tends to look better when your holding period is long enough for fixed upfront costs to be “earned back.”

If buying never becomes cheaper within your selected holding period, the calculator will report “No break-even within N years” and show how much more (or less) buying costs at the end of the horizon. If you set a very high down payment (near 50%, or higher if allowed), the monthly mortgage portion drops, which can move break-even earlier—but you’re still funding the upfront cash. If assumptions lead to net sale proceeds that would otherwise go negative, the tool clamps net sale proceeds to zero to keep results realistic.

This calculator is a decision aid, not tax or financial advice. It assumes constant rent and a fixed home appreciation rate (not entered separately), and it approximates closing costs and selling costs with fixed percentages rather than itemizing them. To make your outcome more accurate, consider adjusting assumptions in your own planning if you expect big rent increases, a refinance, major renovations, or a non-standard tax situation.