Rent vs Buy Breakeven Calculator
Compare renting and buying with mortgage, tax, maintenance, appreciation, and investment-return assumptions to find the breakeven year.
How this is calculated
Rent grows annually and includes renters insurance. Buying includes the down payment, closing costs, mortgage payments, taxes, insurance, maintenance, HOA, sale costs, and the opportunity cost of cash committed at purchase.
Buy cumulative net is modeled as if the home is sold in each year: outflows plus opportunity cost, minus equity and net sale proceeds. Breakeven is the first year where the buy path is less expensive than the rent path.
Tax benefits are only applied when itemizing is enabled. The default is off because many filers do not exceed the standard deduction after the 2017 tax changes.