Free calculator
Real estate vs. stocks calculator
Project the same starting capital forward at two rates you choose — one for a rental, one for a stock index fund — and compare. It’s an illustration of your assumptions, not investment advice.
An illustration of your inputs — not investment advice.
The short answer
Last updated: July 2026
This tool compares real estate and stocks by projecting the same starting capital forward at two annual returns you enter — one for a rental, one for a stock index fund — compounded over a horizon you choose. It’s strictly an illustration of your own assumptions, not historical data, a prediction, or investment advice about which to pick.
After the estimate:
Self-management softwareReal estate vs. stocks calculator
The same capital, two assumed rates.
Enter a starting amount and the annual return you'd assume for each path — a rental and a stock index fund — and see them compound side by side. An illustration of your inputs, not advice.
Starting capital
$
For a rental this is usually the down payment you'd invest.
Assumed real-estate return / yr
8%
0%
15%
Assumed stock return / yr
7%
0%
15%
Years
20 yrs
1 yr
40 yrs
Input-driven result
Your inputs
Formula
Result below
Real estate in 20 yrs
$279,657
$60,000 compounded at 8% a year.
Stocks in 20 yrs
$232,181
$60,000 compounded at 7% a year.
Real estate ends ahead by
$47,476
The gap between the two paths at the rates you entered.
Estimate based on your inputs. Not a promise of results.
Illustration only — not investment advice, and Aptoria is not an investment advisor. It simply compounds the rates you chose; it ignores leverage, rental cash flow, dividends, fees, and taxes, and makes no claim about which path is better. Projected returns are not guaranteed.
How it works
How this tool works.
A down payment is capital, and capital has options. The same money could go into a rental property or into a broad stock index fund — and the long-run difference comes down to the annual return each earns and how many years it compounds. Seeing both grow side by side makes the trade-off concrete.
This calculator takes one starting amount and projects it forward at two annual rates you enter — one you’d expect from real estate, one from stocks — over a horizon you set. It is strictly an illustration of the rates you choose. It is explicitly not investment advice, and it makes no claim about which is better or what any real return will be.
Make the result useful
Compare assumptions before comparing outcomes
Real estate and stocks can differ in leverage, liquidity, taxes, concentration, management effort, and transaction costs. A return comparison is only as useful as the inputs you make comparable.
Use after-cost assumptions and state the time horizon. A modeled stock return does not include property work; a modeled property return should not omit expenses or financing.
Which asset is better?
The calculator does not make an investment recommendation.
Questions landlords ask
Questions about this tool and its limits.
This calculator compounds the rates you enter and is for illustration only. It is not investment advice, and Aptoria is not an investment advisor. Projected returns are not guaranteed; consult a qualified financial advisor for your situation.
Built by a landlord who's done every one of these jobs by hand.
Aptoria was built by an owner-operator managing a Brooklyn portfolio — the 11pm calls, the awkward rent texts, the April receipt-pile — not by a software team guessing at the problem.
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