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Rent vs Buy Calculator

Compare renting and buying over the years you'll stay, with every cost and the money a deposit could earn instead.

Country

For a similar home

20% of the price, $ 80,000

1 to 40 years

The future

After tax

For today's money

Costs

Buying 3% · selling 6% · maintenance 1% a year · insurance $ 1,500 a year · deposit 1 month · renter's costs $ 300 a year

Ahead after 10 years
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Compares buying a home with renting a similar one over the years you expect to stay, in today's money. It counts what each path costs (the down payment, buying and selling costs, mortgage, maintenance, insurance and tax on one side; rent and insurance on the other) and what the money would have earned invested instead. It gives who is ahead, the year buying breaks even, and the rent above which buying wins.

The United States and United Kingdom modes carry each country's costs, such as US mortgage insurance and UK stamp duty; Other works in any currency with the costs you enter.

How it works

The same money on both paths. Each month, the cheaper path invests the difference at the investment return. At the start the renter invests what the buyer spends on the down payment and buying costs; once owning costs less than renting, as rent rises or the mortgage ends, the owner invests the surplus. Selling at the end, buying is worth the home's value less selling costs and the mortgage left, plus its portfolio; renting is worth its portfolio plus the deposit back.

The four lines. Each side's cost is split as the New York Times calculator splits it: initial costs, recurring costs, the opportunity cost of that money (what it would have earned invested) and net proceeds (money that comes back at the end, shown as negative). The side with the lower total is ahead, by the difference.

Today's money and timing. Every figure is divided by inflation since the start. Home prices and rents step once a year, as leases do; insurance, HOA fees or service charges and renter's costs rise with inflation. The mortgage is a standard monthly repayment loan, with US PMI charged until the balance on the original schedule falls to 78% of the price, or until halfway through the term if sooner.

Why short stays favour renting. Buying and selling costs are paid once however long you stay, so the fewer years they are spread over, the more they weigh. In the default US case they come to $ 36,000 before any price growth.

Buy = home value × (1 − selling costs) − mortgage balance + buyer's portfolio
Rent = renter's portfolio + deposit
Portfolio each month = portfolio × (1 + return)^(1/12) + the other path's extra cost

Examples

A US home over 10 years

A $ 400,000 home with $ 80,000 down at 6.5% over 30 years, against $ 2,000 a month in rent, with the default costs and growth: after 10 years, renting is ahead by $ 12,608, and buying draws ahead in year 14. Buying would win over the 10 years if rent were above $ 2,097 a month.

A UK first-time buyer at £500,000

In England, with £ 50,000 down at 4.5% over 25 years against £ 2,000 a month, with the default costs and growth: first-time buyer relief sets stamp duty at £ 10,000 (a pound more and the relief is lost). After 10 years, buying is ahead by £ 74,151, and buying draws ahead in year 3.

A 3-year stay

The first example sold after 3 years: renting is ahead by $ 31,409. Buying and selling costs have had no time to be outweighed.

Tax and stamp duty

US home-sale exclusion. Up to $ 250,000 of gain on selling a main home is tax-free, or $ 500,000 for a married couple filing jointly, if you owned and lived in it for at least 2 of the 5 years before the sale. The calculator takes the gain as tax-free, and says when a stay is too short or a gain larger than the exclusion.

US mortgage interest and property tax. They are deductible only by itemising, which helps only when your itemised deductions are larger than the standard deduction: in2026, $ 16,100 single, $ 24,150 head of household and $ 32,200 married filing jointly. The calculator leaves deductions out.

UK. Private residence relief makes the gain on a home you have lived in throughout free of Capital Gains Tax. Stamp duty comes from the same bands as the UK Stamp Duty Calculator for England and Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, with first-time buyer relief where the nation has it.

Sources

Reviewed

Frequently asked questions

No more than mortgage interest, property tax, maintenance and the return a down payment gives up. Each is a cost that buys somewhere to live and builds no wealth. What builds wealth is the part of a mortgage payment that repays the loan, the home's rise in value, and, for a renter, investing what owning would have cost. The calculator counts all of them.
A widely used rule of thumb: the yearly cost of owning that you never get back is about 5% of the home's value (roughly 1% property tax, 1% maintenance and 3% cost of capital). If a year of rent is less than 5% of the price, renting is likely cheaper. It is a quick check, not a calculation; the tool works from your own figures instead.
Taxes on the renter's portfolio (enter the return after tax), US itemised deductions, moving costs, rent controls, and the ups and downs of prices and markets: growth and returns are steady here. It also cannot price the security of owning or the flexibility of renting. The strip of assumptions a point either side shows which of them sway the answer.

See also