Total Rent Paid
$183,899.09
Rent vs Buy Calculator
Compare the long-term net cost of renting vs. buying a home.
Buying Saves You
$142,527.06
Net Cost of Buying
$41,372.03
Home Equity Built
$177,290.37
Interest Paid (period)
$121,827.88
How to use the Rent vs Buy Calculator
The Rent vs Buy Calculator is free and runs entirely in your browser — no sign-up, and nothing you enter leaves your device. It opens pre-filled with a realistic example, so you can see how it works before replacing any figure with your own; the results update as you type. Press Calculate to refresh the result panel, or Reset to return to the example.
The inputs it asks for:
- Current Monthly Rent — a dollar amount.
- Annual Rent Growth — a percentage (enter 6 for 6%).
- Home Price — a dollar amount.
- Down Payment — a dollar amount.
- Mortgage Rate — a percentage (enter 6 for 6%).
- Mortgage Term (yrs) — a number.
- Home Appreciation Rate — a percentage (enter 6 for 6%).
- Years to Compare — a number.
The formula
It runs both paths over your comparison window and nets them out. Renting is simply the sum of rent, grown each year. Buying totals the mortgage payments plus the down payment, then subtracts the equity you'd hold at the end — the home's appreciated value minus the loan balance still owed:
Net cost of buying = (Payments + Down payment) − (Future home value − Loan balance)- Payments
- the mortgage payments made within the window (it stops billing once the loan is repaid)
- Future home value
- Price·(1 + appreciation)^years
- Loan balance
- the principal still owed at the end of the window
It's a cash-cost comparison. It doesn't model property tax, insurance, maintenance or transaction costs on the buy side, nor what a renter might earn by investing the down payment — all of which matter. Read the winner as directional.
Worked example
Using the example values — Current Monthly Rent $2,000.00, Annual Rent Growth 3%, Home Price $350,000.00, Down Payment $70,000.00, Mortgage Rate 6.5%, Mortgage Term (yrs) 30, and 2 more — the Rent vs Buy Calculator returns a Buying Saves You of $142,527.06. It also reports Total Rent Paid ($183,899.09), Net Cost of Buying ($41,372.03), Home Equity Built ($177,290.37).
Prefer your own numbers? Change any field above and this recomputes instantly.
Key terms
- Equity
- The share of the home you own outright — market value minus the loan balance.
- Appreciation
- The annual rate at which the home's value is assumed to rise.
- Amortization
- The split of each mortgage payment between interest and principal over the term.
Frequently asked questions
Why can buying win even though I pay more in payments?
Because you keep the house. The equity you hold at the end — appreciated value minus the remaining loan — is subtracted from the cost of buying. Renting builds no such asset.
What's missing from the buy side?
Property tax, insurance, maintenance and closing/selling costs, which this doesn't include. Add them and the breakeven shifts toward renting.
Does it credit the renter for investing the down payment?
No. A renter who invests the down payment and the monthly difference could do better than this simple comparison suggests — worth modelling separately.