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Rent vs Buy Calculator

Over 10 years, a $500,000 home totals about $478,400 in cash outlays versus about $346,100 to rent at $2,800 a month, so renting costs roughly $132,300 less. The rent-vs-buy-calculator comparison totals what each path costs in cash over your time horizon: buying counts the mortgage payments, upkeep at 1.5% of the home's value per year, and the down payment, while renting counts the rent with a 3% inflation adjustment.

10-yr cost difference
−$132,312
Renting is cheaper
Total to buy
$478,393
Total to rent
$346,080
Down payment
$100,000
Renting is cheaper over your time horizon
About $132,313 less across 10 years — before home appreciation, tax breaks, and the down payment's opportunity cost, which can flip the answer.
Cost over time
Total dollars out
$478.39K$239.2K$00y5y10y
Buy
Rent
Inputs
Head to head
Home price
$
Monthly rent
$
Buying terms
Down payment %
%
Mortgage rate
%
Your horizon
How long?
years
Over 10 years, renting comes out ahead
The gap is about $132,313. The horizon is the real lever — buying's upfront costs take years to earn back, so a longer stay favors buying and a shorter one favors renting.
Big factors this leaves out
It assumes 1.5% annual maintenance and 3% rent inflation but skips home appreciation, tax deductions, and the opportunity cost of investing the down payment elsewhere. The rule of thumb: buying rarely wins under about 5 years.
Ask a follow-up
Uses your inputs above
−$132,313 10-yr cost difference. Want to try a variation?

The math

Reviewed 2026
Formula
buy = mortgage + maintenance + down; rent = ∑ rent · (1.03)^t
t years
1.5% annual maintenance
3% annual rent inflation
Excludes appreciation, tax benefits

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Example: how rent vs buy is calculated

Step-by-step with default inputs

Suppose you put the default values into Rent vs Buy Calculator:

Home price
$500,000
Monthly rent
$2,800
How long?
10 years
Down payment %
20%
Mortgage rate
6.5%

Plug those into the formula buy = mortgage + maintenance + down; rent = ∑ rent · (1.03)^t and the result is:

10-yr cost difference
−$132,313

How to calculate rent vs buy by hand

  1. Amortize the financed amount: $500,000 minus 20% down leaves $400,000, which at 6.5% over 30 years costs $2,528.27 a month.
  2. Total the buy side: ($2,528.27 × 12 + $500,000 × 1.5%) × 10 years + $100,000 down ≈ $478,400.
  3. Total the rent side: $2,800 × 12 × 10 × 1.03 ≈ $346,100.
  4. Subtract: $346,100 − $478,400 ≈ −$132,300 — negative means renting costs less over this window.

How does the rent vs buy calculator work?

The buy side amortizes the financed amount — price minus the down-payment percentage — as a 30-year mortgage, then totals the payments over your horizon, plus maintenance estimated at 1.5% of the home price per year, plus the down payment itself. The rent side totals monthly rent over the same horizon with a 3% inflation adjustment applied. The output is rent total minus buy total: positive means buying was the cheaper path over that window. The framing follows the NYT rent-vs-buy-calculator methodology in spirit but is deliberately simpler — it compares cash outlays only, without modeling home appreciation, equity built through principal payments, tax effects, or returns the down payment could earn elsewhere.

References: NYT Rent vs Buy methodology.

Last reviewed July 2, 2026 · Editorial policy

Frequently asked questions

Why does the mortgage use a 30-year term for a 10-year comparison?

The payment is set by the full 30-year amortization schedule regardless of how long you stay; the comparison then counts only the years of payments inside your horizon. Leaving at year 10 means most of the loan is still outstanding — the model counts outlays, not remaining balances.

What makes buying more expensive in the default scenario?

The up-front and carrying costs: $100,000 down plus $75,000 of maintenance (1.5% of $500,000 for 10 years) on top of about $303,400 in mortgage payments, against roughly $346,100 all-in for renting.

How does the time horizon change the answer?

Rent scales with years while the buy side carries the fixed down payment, so longer horizons dilute the up-front cost. At the defaults, though, each year of owning also costs more in payments and upkeep (about $37,800) than a year of renting (about $34,600), so the gap widens rather than closes.

What does this calculator assume?

1.5% annual maintenance See the math card above for the full list.

How accurate is this rent vs buy calculator?

The math is deterministic — the same inputs always produce the same output, and the formula is shown above. Accuracy of the answer for your situation depends on how well your inputs match reality and how well the formula models the question.

Why is my bank's number different?

Banks add fees, taxes, insurance, and product-specific terms that this calculator deliberately omits to keep the math transparent. Use this to sanity-check a quote, not to replace it.