Analyze whether renting or buying is more favorable over your planned living horizon.
Overview
The rent-versus-buy decision is highly sensitive to tenure, rates, and housing costs.
Buying can build equity but includes interest, taxes, maintenance, and transaction costs.
Renting offers flexibility and lower responsibility for major repairs.
This calculator compares net cost under both pathways over a chosen timeline.
Steps
Input current rent and expected annual rent growth.
Add home price, down payment, mortgage terms, and costs.
Choose years you expect to remain in the home.
Compare net renting and net buying outcomes.
Re-run with shorter and longer stay periods.
Math
Net Buy Cost = Ownership Outflows - Equity Built; Net Rent Cost = Total Rent Paid
Comparison evaluates cumulative net outflow after accounting for equity accumulation under buying.
Worked cases
Compute net rent and buy costs over short horizon.
Renting often compares favorably when tenure is short.
Extend timeline and include equity build-up.
Buying may improve relative economics over longer stays.
Increase borrowing cost and recompute.
Higher rates can shift advantage back toward renting.
Why use this
Questions