Skip to content
Allin
Sign up · Sign in

Rent vs Buy Calculator

Compare the monthly cost of renting versus buying a home.

Related tools

All Renting & yield tools →
Maximum rent calculatorSet your own effort rate, take out charges and running loans, and read the rent against two published reference lines.Rent increase calculatorWork out your new rent and the increase amount after a percentage rise.Rent-to-income ratio calculatorCompute the share of your income that goes to rent (the 30% rule of thumb).Section 8 rent calculatorEstimate the tenant's share and the housing-assistance payment (HAP) under the US Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program. It applies HUD's rules — $480 per dependent and a $400 elderly/disabled deduction — to reach adjusted income, takes 30% of the monthly adjusted income as the Total Tenant Payment, and compares your unit's gross rent against the payment standard to size the subsidy.Gross rent multiplier calculatorCompute the gross rent multiplier (GRM) of a property from price and annual rent.Rent Split CalculatorSplit the total rent equally between housemates.Prorated Rent CalculatorWork out the partial rent owed for a mid-month move-in or move-out, by actual days, a 30-day month or 365-day basis.Rent Affordability CalculatorSee how much rent you can afford using the 30% rule and a debt-adjusted 28/36 rule, and test a target rent.

Need Monthly cost to buy, Monthly cost to rent, Cheaper option? The Rent vs Buy Calculator derives it from Monthly rent, Home price, Down payment, Annual interest rate, Yearly taxes + maintenance (% of price) in one step. For instance, with Monthly rent = $1,200.00, Home price = $300,000.00, Down payment = 20%, Annual interest rate = 4% and Yearly taxes + maintenance (% of price) = 1.5% it returns Monthly cost to buy = $1,641.81, Monthly cost to rent = $1,200.00 and Cheaper option = rent.

How to use it

  1. Enter your values: Monthly rent, Home price, Down payment, Annual interest rate, Yearly taxes + maintenance (% of price).
  2. Read the result instantly: Monthly cost to buy, Monthly cost to rent, Cheaper option.

Frequently asked questions

What does the Rent vs Buy Calculator actually compute?

It takes Monthly rent, Home price, Down payment, Annual interest rate and Yearly taxes + maintenance (% of price) and derives Monthly cost to buy, Monthly cost to rent and Cheaper option from them. The calculation is live as you type, so the result updates on every change.

What information do I need to provide?

5 values: Monthly rent ($), Home price ($), Down payment (%), Annual interest rate (%) and Yearly taxes + maintenance (% of price) (%). Nothing else is required — no account, no file upload.

Can you show a worked example?

With Monthly rent = $1,200.00, Home price = $300,000.00, Down payment = 20%, Annual interest rate = 4% and Yearly taxes + maintenance (% of price) = 1.5%, the calculator returns Monthly cost to buy = $1,641.81, Monthly cost to rent = $1,200.00 and Cheaper option = rent. Those figures come from running this exact tool, so you can reproduce them by entering the same values.

What happens if I enter larger values?

It moves a lot. Using Monthly rent = $2,400.00, Home price = $600,000.00, Down payment = 22%, Annual interest rate = 4.4% and Yearly taxes + maintenance (% of price) = 1.7% instead, Monthly cost to buy goes from $1,641.81 to $3,424.80 — which is why it is worth testing a few scenarios rather than trusting a single figure.

Which units should I enter the values in?

Enter Down payment %, Annual interest rate % and Yearly taxes + maintenance (% of price) %.

What does it give for smaller values?

Scaled down to Monthly rent = $600.00, Home price = $150,000.00, Down payment = 18%, Annual interest rate = 3.6% and Yearly taxes + maintenance (% of price) = 1.4%, Monthly cost to buy comes out at $797.38. The relationship is worth checking at both ends before you rely on a single result.

When would I actually use this?

Setting or checking a rent, working out the yield a property really returns, and splitting a part-month at the start or end of a tenancy.

What is the most common mistake?

Quoting a gross yield. Once charges, tax, insurance, management and vacancy are taken out, the net figure is routinely a third to a half lower.

How accurate is it, and what are the limits?

Highly simplified: ignores home appreciation, tax deductions, opportunity cost and closing fees. For guidance only.

What is the difference between the Rent vs Buy Calculator and the Maximum rent calculator?

This one returns Monthly cost to buy and Monthly cost to rent; the Maximum rent calculator returns Maximum rent, charges excluded and Housing budget at that rate. That is the whole difference — open the one whose figure you need.

Further reading

All guides →
ComparisonRenting or Buying: the Break-Even in Years, and What Actually Moves ItBuying beats renting after a number of years, and that number is computable. On the same house, the same loan and the same year, it lands on 6 in Madrid, 7 in France and 8 in Catalonia — purely because of what the purchase costs on the way in. But the purchase cost is not the biggest lever, and this article shows which one is.ComparisonRenting vs Buying a Home: Which Is Better?Renting vs buying, compared honestly: the break-even horizon, the opportunity cost of a down payment, and the situations where each option wins.How-toHow to Calculate Rental Yield (Gross vs Net)How to calculate rental yield: the gross formula (annual rent ÷ price), the net version after costs, and what counts as a good yield.How-toHow to Calculate Prorated Rent — and Why Three Methods Give Three AnswersMove in on 18 October at $1,500 a month and you owe $677.42, $700.00 or $690.41 depending on which convention the lease uses. Agree on one before you sign, not after.ExplainerThe Most Rent You Should Agree ToThree different numbers decide a letting: the rent the agent screens, the total occupancy cost your budget has to survive, and the cash due at signing. On a $1,800 listing they are $1,800, $2,095 and $3,600.ExplainerWhat a Rent Increase Is Allowed to BeFive of six markets index the permitted increase to a published statistic, and each names a different one. The arithmetic is universal: on a $1,500 rent, ten years at a 1 percent index leaves you 25.38 percent below a market that grew 4 percent.