How to use this tool
Enter the purchase price, financing, current rent and comparison horizon.
Set ownership costs, closing and sale costs, growth assumptions and alternative investment return. Compare ending wealth under the same monthly housing budget.
Compare home-sale equity with a renter investing upfront costs and monthly cost differences
Worked example
-$9,259.29 · buying minus renting ending wealth
Fixed example using the settings below. Monetary examples use USD; dates and times use their stated reference values. This example stays unchanged when you edit your calculation.
Example inputs
- Home price: 300000
- Down payment (%): 20
- Mortgage nominal annual rate (%): 6
- Mortgage term (whole years): 30
- Comparison horizon (whole years): 10
- Monthly rent: 1500
- Annual rent increase (%): 2
- Annual ownership costs (% of home value): 2
- Annual home appreciation (%): 2
- Effective annual investment return (%): 4
- Purchase closing costs (%): 3
- Sale costs (%): 6
Method illustration: Results depend strongly on appreciation, rent, maintenance and alternative investment returns.
Assumptions and limits
- Assumed rates remain constant. Values are estimates before tax and fees unless entered explicitly. No return or affordability is guaranteed.
- Calculations use full precision; displayed money is rounded to cents.
- Ownership cost covers your entered tax, insurance and maintenance percentage; no tax deductions are assumed.
- Both households share the same monthly housing budget; whichever spends less invests the difference. No transaction is recommended.
Method reference: Investor.gov saving and investing tools
Check or report a result
Check the units, selected calculation and assumptions first. Compare the fixed example above with your inputs to identify what changed.
Report a calculation issue with the page address, hypothetical inputs, result displayed and result expected. Do not include passwords, bank details or other private information.