Rent vs Buy Calculator

This compares renting with owning over the number of years you would actually stay, and ends with the net position each path leaves you holding. Both sides start with the same cash: the buyer puts it into the down payment and closing costs, the renter keeps it invested, and each month the gap between the two housing costs is added to or taken out of the renter's pot. The owning side counts principal and interest, property tax, insurance, maintenance, any HOA fee, the cost of buying and the cost of selling, and it values the house at the end after appreciation and those selling costs. It leaves out the mortgage interest deduction, mortgage insurance on a small down payment, renters insurance, deposits and moving costs, and the verdict swings hard on the appreciation, rent rise and investment return you type in, so change those and watch what happens.