Rent vs Buy Calculator
Should you keep renting or finally buy a place? Bellhaven's Rent vs Buy Calculator gives you a clear answer — drag the year slider and watch the verdict flip live as you change how long you'd stay.
We don't just compare your mortgage to your rent (that's where most calculators stop). We factor in the down payment you could've kept invested instead, closing costs you don't get back, maintenance you'll actually have to pay, and what's left after the selling fees when you eventually move. Save your result to a link you can text your partner or parents — no signup, no spam.
Break-even
Year 4
Buy if you'll stay this long
Monthly · Buy
$3,612/mo
Year 1 PITI + maint
Monthly · Rent
$3,215/mo
Year 1 rent + insurance
Cash to close
$115,000
$100,000 down + $15,000 closing
📈 Your net worth over 30 years
Buy
Rent
Year 10
Buy$373,584
Rent$230,053
Save or share your analysis
Recipients open the link and see every number you entered.
📋 Your numbers
8 fields in Simple. Open Advanced for tax, fees & growth dials.
Home price
What you'd pay for the place
Down payment
% of price you'd put down
Mortgage rate
30-yr fixed APR
Monthly rent
For a comparable place
Property tax
% of home value/year
Home appreciation
Per year · long-run avg 3.5%
Investment return
What cash would earn elsewhere
Rent growth
Per year · ~3% long-run
🤔 What if your plans change?
Same numbers, different stay lengths. Here's how each scenario plays out.
What if you move in 3 years?
Renting edges out by $15,049 — barely, but it's still your move.
🔑 Rent
What if you stay 5 years?
Buying edges out by $21,712 — close but in your favor.
🏡 Buy
What if you stay a decade?
Buying puts you $143,531 ahead — a clear win.
🏡 Buy
What if you stay 15 years?
Buying puts you $321,525 ahead — a clear win.
🏡 Buy
What if you stay forever (30 yrs)?
Buying puts you $1,380,303 ahead — a clear win.
🏡 Buy
💭 Beyond the math
Six things the spreadsheet can't price in. Read these before you decide.
You want a dog, a garden, or to paint a wall purple
Leans buyRenting tends to mean rules. No pets, no nails in the wall, no fence. Owning means you get to decide. The math doesn't price this in, but it's why most people end up buying eventually.
You might move in the next 3 years
Leans rentClosing costs (3–6% buying, 6–10% selling) crush short-horizon math. If there's any real chance of a job change, family move, or wanderlust, rent. The break-even almost never happens before year 5.
Local rents are climbing faster than home prices
Leans buyIf rents in your city are growing 5%+/yr while home prices are flat, buying locks in your housing cost and the math tips fast. Check the local Zillow Rent Index against the Case-Shiller HPI before deciding.
You hate dealing with home maintenance
Leans rentWater heaters die at 2 AM. Roofs leak. HVAC compressors are $8,000. The 1%-of-value-per-year maintenance line in the math is an average — real life is lumpy. If a $15k surprise would ruin your year, renting buys peace of mind.
Your income is stable and you're settled
Leans buyA 30-year mortgage is a 30-year commitment to a place. If your career, partner, and city all feel locked in, owning gets you tax advantages, forced savings via principal payments, and inflation-hedged housing costs.
You'd actually invest the difference (and not yolo it)
Leans rentRenting only beats buying long-term if you actually invest what you save into the S&P 500 — not lifestyle creep. If past you would've just spent it, owning is your forced-savings plan. Be honest with yourself.
📚 What the math is actually doing
⚖️Fair comparison: invest the difference
Both households have the same income. Whichever side has the lower housing cost in a given year invests the difference at your investment return rate. This is the only honest way to compare — and the reason our break-even is usually later than competitors who ignore the renter's investment alternative.
🏛️§121 primary-residence exclusion
When you sell your primary residence, the IRS lets you exclude up to $250k of capital gain from tax ($500k married) — provided you lived there 2 of the last 5 years. We apply this automatically if you marked it as your primary residence.
💵Mortgage interest & property tax deduction
In theory both are deductible. In practice, since the 2017 TCJA roughly doubled the standard deduction, only ~10% of households itemize. We apply your marginal tax rate to half the deductible amount as a realistic average. Set marginal tax to 0 if you don't itemize.
🛡️PMI handled automatically
Put less than 20% down? Lenders add private mortgage insurance, ~0.5%/yr of the loan. We add it to your monthly cost while your loan-to-value is above 80%, then drop it automatically as you build equity.
📉What this calculator can't predict
Home appreciation, rent growth, and investment returns are estimates. Property tax can be reassessed. Maintenance is lumpy (a roof replacement is a bad year). Real life happens — divorces, job moves, sick parents. The math is the floor of your decision, not the ceiling.
🧮Not financial or tax advice
This is a planning tool. State capital gains tax, NIIT, AMT, jumbo loan rules, and your specific lender's pricing all introduce wrinkles. Talk to a CPA before you sign a purchase contract — especially for the §121 exclusion which can have nasty surprises.
