Rent vs buy calculator with your city's real numbers
After you select a city, the rent vs buy calculator puts in that place's typical rent, its home price, property tax and insurance numbers. Adjust anything you want.
- Return assumed on savings
- 8.3% 60% S&P 500 with dividends and 40% 10-year Treasuries, rebalanced yearly, 1928 to 2025
How this rent vs buy calculator compares
What other free calculators ask, assume and leave out.
| Calculator | What it asks | Where its numbers start | What it leaves out |
|---|---|---|---|
 NerdWallet | About 19 questions on one screen | National averages you type over | Where its defaults come from |
 Zillow | Three sliders | Zillow estimates for your area | Investment return on the down payment |
 Calculator.net | About 21 inputs | Generic numbers | Local prices, rents and taxes |
 The New York Times | Many sliders with a live chart | National figures | Free access: it sits behind a paywall |
 Fidelity | A short form | Generic numbers | Local data and the break-even year |
 Charles Schwab | A short form | Generic numbers | Local data |
 SmartAsset | A long form, then an advisor match | Your ZIP code | A plain answer without a sales step |
 rent vs buy .city | Three short steps | Zillow rent and price for your city, plus Census tax and insurance data | Your tax bracket and PMI (20% down is assumed) |
Make a card you can share that shows your verdict
After the stamp appears, press the "Make a share card" button. The result is a picture showing your city, the gap and the verdict, ready to post or to send to whoever keeps telling you that you should buy. Your exact numbers go into the address when you choose "Copy link", so the same result shows up for anyone who opens it.
What the renting vs buying calculator includes
Two people begin at the same point, and the calculator follows each of them. One rents, investing the down payment plus closing costs. The second person buys. Every year, it totals what each one paid and subtracts what each would get back.
- Renting: each rent payment, less the earnings from invested savings.
- If you own: the interest and principal, property tax, insurance, upkeep and buying costs, minus the equity you'd hold after paying selling costs.
By the year you'd leave, the stamp goes to whichever path cost less. The first year when owning costs no more than renting is the break-even year. If both paths land within 2% of the money involved, you see a toss-up.
What it leaves out by choice
With a 20% down payment assumed, PMI doesn't apply (lenders charge this insurance on smaller down payments). It applies the standard tax deduction that most households take, so mortgage interest isn't taken off. Tax brackets and moving costs are never guessed at, and neither is the joy of painting a wall. All the rules are spelled out on the methodology page.