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Rent vs buy calculator
A plain side-by-side of the monthly cash cost of renting versus owning — mortgage principal & interest plus your own property tax, insurance, and maintenance figures — with a multi-year running total at the rent growth you assume.
The short answer
Last updated: July 2026
To compare renting with buying, stack monthly cash costs side by side: owning is mortgage principal & interest plus property tax, insurance, and maintenance; renting is the rent. A $400,000 home with 20% down at 6.5% over 30 years runs about $2,023 in P&I — add your tax, insurance, and upkeep, then compare against your rent.
After the estimate:
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Renting or owning: the monthly math.
Compare the monthly cash cost of renting against owning — mortgage principal & interest plus your own tax, insurance, and maintenance figures — and see how the totals stack up over the years at your rent-growth assumption.
Current monthly rent
$
Assumed rent growth per year
3.0%
0%
10%
Home price
$
Down payment
20%
0%
50%
Mortgage rate (APR)
6.50%
0%
12%
Loan term
30 yrs
10 yrs
40 yrs
Monthly property tax
$
Monthly homeowners insurance
$
Monthly maintenance allowance
$
Your own estimate of what upkeep will run per month once you own it.
Input-driven result
Your inputs
Formula
Result below
Owning costs more per month
$673
$2,873/mo owning ($2,023 P&I + $850 tax/ins/maintenance) vs $2,200/mo renting.
Cumulative cash over 5 years
$32,196 more to own
$140,161 total rent (growing 3.0%/yr) vs $172,357 total owning cost (held flat). Excludes the down payment of $80,000 and closing costs.
Estimate based on your inputs. Not a promise of results.
A simplified side-by-side of monthly cash costs, not financial advice. It excludes home appreciation, the equity your P&I payments build, tax effects, closing costs, and what the down payment could earn elsewhere — factors that can swing the real answer either way.
Years to compare
5 yrs
1 yr
15 yrs
How it works
How this tool works.
Rent versus buy is usually argued with slogans — “rent is throwing money away,” “a house is a money pit.” The more useful starting point is plain cash: what leaves your account each month in each scenario, and how those totals diverge over a few years as rent rises and a fixed mortgage payment does not. That does not settle the question by itself, but it puts a real number under the debate.
This calculator builds the owning side from a mortgage payment computed from your price, down payment, rate, and term, plus the monthly property tax, insurance, and maintenance allowance you enter. It compares that against your current rent, then projects a cumulative side-by-side over the years you choose, growing rent at your own assumption while holding owning costs flat. Be clear about what it is: a simplified cash comparison, not financial advice. It excludes appreciation, the equity your payments build, tax effects, closing costs, and what the down payment could earn elsewhere — factors that can swing the real answer in either direction.
Make the result useful
Compare the same horizon and the same cash flows
Renting is not only a monthly payment, and buying is not only a mortgage payment. A useful comparison includes the costs you actually pay, the time horizon, and what happens to cash not used for a down payment.
Keep uncertain assumptions visible: sale price, rent growth, maintenance, and investment return can dominate a longer comparison.
Does this predict home values?
No. Future value is an assumption, not a forecast.
Questions landlords ask
Questions about this tool and its limits.
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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