Find the exact year buying beats renting in your market, using your real numbers, not a generic online calculator's assumptions.
Plugging in your own real numbers and opportunity cost gives you a break-even year that's actually yours, not a generic online estimate.
Backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee. If it is not useful, we will refund it, no questions asked.
Every generic rent-vs-buy calculator online uses assumptions you can't see or change: someone else's mortgage rate, someone else's appreciation guess, someone else's maintenance estimate. This spreadsheet flips that by making every input yours. Enter your actual rent (with expected increases), your actual estimated cost of buying (mortgage, property tax, insurance, maintenance), and the equity you expect to build each year.
The sheet then tracks cumulative rent cost against cumulative buy cost minus equity built, side by side, year by year. The row where buy cost minus equity finally drops below cumulative rent cost is your real break-even year, specific to your market and your numbers, not a generic five-year rule of thumb.
We built this because every rent-vs-buy calculator we tried made the decision feel like it had one universal answer. It doesn't. The break-even year depends entirely on your local rent, your local home prices, and your mortgage rate, and those change constantly.
— DaveWays
Every input is yours: actual rent, actual buying costs, actual equity assumption. No hidden generic defaults skewing the answer.
Cumulative rent vs. buy-minus-equity side by side shows precisely which year buying starts winning, not a vague range.
Mortgage rates and local prices move; update your inputs and get a new break-even year in seconds.
Does this account for closing costs and selling costs?
Yes, factor those into your annual buy cost estimate for year one (closing) and your equity assumption if you plan to sell later; the sheet is built to take whatever real cost inputs you give it.
What if I don't know my exact mortgage rate yet?
Use a current market-average rate as a placeholder and rerun the sheet once you have a real quote, the break-even year updates instantly.
Does it work outside the US?
The math (cumulative cost comparison) works anywhere; just enter your local currency figures for rent, price, and costs.
Rent vs Buy Calculator (Free Preview) — download a condensed version free, no purchase required, to see if it's a fit before you buy.
Rent vs Buy Calculator is $16.99 USD, one-time payment, instant delivery, no subscription. Covered by our 30-day money-back guarantee. See our refund policy and terms.
