Rent vs Buy Calculator
Compare renting against buying the way credible calculators do — an invest-the-difference net-worth race over the years you'll stay. Enter a home price, rent, and your assumptions to get the break-even year, a buy-or-rent verdict, and a year-by-year wealth comparison. Runs locally in your browser.
About this tool
This calculator answers the real rent-vs-buy question — over the years you actually plan to stay, will you end up wealthier renting or buying? — the way credible calculators do. It does not just line up a monthly mortgage payment against monthly rent. It runs an "invest-the-difference" net-worth race:
- The buyer pays the down payment and closing costs up front. The renter invests that same cash instead, so it keeps earning a return (the opportunity cost of tying money up in a house).
- Each month, whichever side has the lower housing cost invests the difference. Both invested pots compound at your assumed investment return.
- At the end of your horizon the buyer's net worth = the appreciated home value − selling costs − the remaining mortgage + their invested savings; the renter's net worth = their invested savings. Buying "wins" when the buyer comes out ahead.
The headline is a verdict (buy, rent, or a wash) plus the break-even year — the first year buying pulls ahead of renting. Two levers usually decide it: how long you stay (short stays favour renting because up-front buying and selling costs never get amortised) and your investment return (a high return favours renting, because the down payment compounds hard elsewhere).
You can tune every table-stakes input: home price, down payment, mortgage rate and term, monthly rent, home appreciation, rent growth, investment return, property tax, insurance, maintenance, HOA dues, and buying/selling costs. Everything runs locally in your browser — nothing you type is uploaded.
Limits (honesty): rates are nominal with monthly compounding; costs are flat percentages; it does not model PMI, mortgage-interest or property-tax deductions, or local price data. It's a planning estimate, not financial advice.
FAQ
How is this different from comparing my rent to a mortgage payment?
A monthly rent-vs-mortgage comparison ignores the two things that actually decide the outcome: the opportunity cost of the down payment (the renter invests it instead) and the equity and appreciation the buyer builds over time. This tool runs the full net-worth race — the buyer pays up-front costs, the renter invests that cash, and each month whoever pays less invests the difference. At your horizon it compares total wealth on each side, not just one month's bill.
What is the break-even year?
The break-even year is the first whole year at which the buyer's net worth — computed as if they sold the home that year, paying selling costs and the remaining mortgage — catches up to the renter's. Before it, renting is ahead; after it, buying is. If buying never overtakes renting within your horizon, the tool says so and reports no break-even year. It's the number behind the common rule of thumb "buy only if you'll stay at least N years."
Why does a higher investment return favour renting?
Because the renter's advantage is that they never tie up a large down payment in a house — they invest it. The higher the return that invested money earns, the more the renter's side-fund grows, and the harder it is for home appreciation and mortgage paydown to catch up. Try setting the investment return to 10–12% and you'll usually see the verdict flip to renting; drop it to 3–4% and buying wins sooner.
Which inputs matter most?
How long you'll stay is the single biggest driver — short stays lose to the up-front buying and selling costs, long stays let appreciation and equity win. After that: the investment return (higher favours renting), the home-appreciation rate (higher favours buying), and the gap between your mortgage rate and rent. The smaller cost knobs (tax, insurance, maintenance, HOA) shift the number but rarely change the verdict on their own.
Is this financial advice?
No. It's a planning estimate that runs entirely in your browser. It uses nominal rates with monthly compounding and flat percentage costs, and it deliberately leaves out PMI, mortgage-interest and property-tax deductions, and any local market data. Real deals involve taxes, loan details, and market timing this model doesn't capture — treat the result as a starting point and adjust for your own situation.
Developer & Automation Access
Run it from the terminal
Same engine as this page, headless — via the gizza CLI:
gizza tool rent-vs-buy 'home_price=400000'New to the CLI? Get gizza →
Open it by URL
Pre-fill and auto-run this tool with query parameters — the names match the API/CLI:
https://gizza.ai/tools/rent-vs-buy/?home_price=400000&down_payment_percent=20&mortgage_rate_percent=6.5&loan_term_years=30&monthly_rent=2000&years=10&home_appreciation_percent=3&rent_growth_percent=3&investment_return_percent=5&property_tax_percent=1.1&home_insurance_percent=0.5&maintenance_percent=1&hoa_monthly=0&buying_closing_percent=3&selling_cost_percent=6¤cy=%24&decimals=0Machine-readable descriptor: tool.json — title + parameters JSON Schema for agents.