By Mike Bostock,Shan Carter,Archie Tse and Francesca Paris
The choice between buying a home and renting one is among the biggest financial decisions that many adults make. But the costs of buying are more varied and complicated than for renting, making it hard to tell which is a better deal.
To help you answer this question, our calculator, which was updated in May 2024 to reflect current tax law, takes the most important costs associated with buying or renting and compares the two options. Note that the “winning choice” is the one that makes more financial sense over the long run, not necessarily what you can afford today. And there are plenty of reasons you might want to rent or buy that are not financial — all we can help you with is the numbers.
Renting saves you
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Buying saves you
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Renting and buying are equal
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Renting saves you
over
Buying saves you
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Renting and buying are equal
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Costs after
Buy
Rent
Initial costs
Recurring costs
Opportunity costs
Net proceeds
Total
How to Read the Charts Charts where the colors are similar indicate factors that are not particularly important. Conversely, the factors that have a wide range of colors have a large impact.
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The Basics
Adjust these numbers to get an estimate for your situation. These are some of the most important factors in your decision, and they’re the only ones we can’t estimate for you.
Home Price, if You Buy
A very important factor, but not the only one. Our estimate will improve as you enter more details below.
Monthly Rent, if You Rent
Setting a target rent allows for a direct comparison of potential costs.
How Long Do You Plan to Stay?
Buying tends to be more appealing the longer you stay because the upfront fees are spread over many years.
What Are Your Mortgage Details?
The calculator assumes you have a fixed-rate mortgage. It also calculates your main opportunity cost of buying — the amount you could have earned by investing the down payment instead — and checks whether you can take advantage of the mortgage-interest tax deduction.
Advanced Options
Some of these inputs will matter a lot, and others less. We’ve filled in some reasonable guesses for you to start.
What Does the Future Hold?
How much home prices, rents and stock prices change can have a large impact on your outcome. Unfortunately, these are some of the hardest things to predict and can vary significantly across the country.
Taxes
Property taxes and mortgage-interest costs are significant but also deductible. The higher your marginal tax rate, the bigger the deduction. But if your house-related deductions are smaller than the standard deduction, you won’t see any relative tax benefit from buying.
Note that the calculator assumes savings in line with current tax laws: The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act increased the standard deduction, while reducing the maximum deductions on property taxes (part of what’s known as the SALT deduction) and mortgage interest. These provisions are set to expire in 2025, but could be renewed or modified by Congress.
How you file your taxes: ?
The first $250,000 of profit from the sale of your home is excluded from taxation. The exclusion is $500,000 if you file jointly with a spouse. See IRS Topic 701 for more information.
Assume the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will: ?
The calculator default assumes that these tax cuts will expire, but they could be renewed. These are just two possible scenarios out of many to help you understand the impact of tax law on your decision.
Closing Costs
You’ll have to pay a set of one-time fees when you buy your home, and also when you sell it.
Maintenance and Fees
Owning a home comes with a variety of expenses, including fixing things and paying certain utility bills. The calculator assumes these costs will increase over time with inflation.
Additional Renting Costs
These are the costs on top of rent, such as the fee you pay to a broker and the opportunity cost on your security deposit. But these expenses typically have a negligible impact.
Methodology
The calculator keeps a running tally of the most common expenses of owning and renting. It also takes into account something known as opportunity cost — for example, the return you could have earned by investing your money. (Instead of spending it on a down payment, for example.) The calculator assumes that the profit you would have made in your investments would be taxed as long-term capital gains and adjusts the bottom line accordingly. The calculator tabulates opportunity costs for all parts of buying and renting. All figures are in current dollars.
Tax law regarding deductions can have a significant effect on the relative benefits of buying. The calculator assumes that the house-related tax provisions in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 will expire after 2025, as written into law. Congress might, however, extend the cuts in their original form, or extend and modify them. You can use the toggle to see how your results may vary if the tax cuts are renewed in full, to get a sense of how big the tax impact might be on your decision.
Buying
Initial costs are the costs you incur when you go to the closing for the home you are purchasing. This includes the down payment and other fees.
Recurring costs are expenses you will have to pay monthly or yearly in owning your home. These include mortgage payments; condo fees (or other community living fees); maintenance and renovation costs; property taxes; and homeowner’s insurance. A few items are tax deductible, up to a point: property taxes; the interest part of the mortgage payment; and, in some cases, a portion of the common charges. The resulting tax savings are accounted for in the buying total. If your house-related deductions are similar to or smaller than the standard deduction, you’ll get little or no relative tax savings from buying. If your house-related deductions are large enough to make itemizing worthwhile, we only count as savings the amount above the standard deduction.
Opportunity costs are calculated for the initial purchase costs and for the recurring costs. That will give you an idea of how much you could have made if you had invested your money instead of buying your home.
Net proceeds is the amount of money you receive from the sale of your home minus the closing costs, which includes the broker’s commission and other fees, the remaining principal balance that you pay to your mortgage bank and any tax you have to pay on profit that exceeds your capital gains exclusion. If your total is negative, it means you have done very well: You made enough of a profit that it covered not only the cost of your home, but also all of your recurring expenses.
Renting
Initial costs include the rent security deposit and, if applicable, the broker’s fee.
Recurring costs include the monthly rent and the cost of renter’s insurance.
Opportunity costs are calculated each year for both your initial costs and your recurring costs.
Net proceeds include the return of the rental security deposit, which typically occurs at the end of a lease.
