Enter your numbers for both scenarios to see the true cost over your timeframe — accounting for equity, appreciation, selling costs, and what you'd earn investing the down payment instead.
Total cash paid — down payment, closing costs, and monthly mortgage principal & interest, property tax, insurance, and maintenance over your chosen years — minus the equity you'd recover by selling at the end of that period (home value at that point, minus your remaining loan balance, minus selling costs).
Total rent paid over the same period (growing each year at your assumed rent increase), minus the investment gain you'd get from investing the down payment and closing costs instead of spending them on a home purchase — money a renter keeps that a buyer ties up in the house.
The first year at which buying's net cost drops to or below renting's net cost. If you plan to stay longer than this, buying tends to win financially; shorter than this, renting tends to win — mainly because closing and selling costs are large fixed costs that only get "worth it" the longer you stay.
No — this covers the major, quantifiable costs on both sides, but skips harder-to-model factors like renovation costs, moving costs, or the value of stability vs. flexibility, which are real but not purely financial. Treat the break-even year as a strong directional signal, not a precise line.
A note for renters in India. The comparison above understates renting if you claim House Rent Allowance, because part of the rent is effectively paid out of untaxed income while a home loan gets its own separate deductions. Work out your exempt amount with the HRA exemption calculator and treat the tax saved as a reduction in the true cost of renting before reading the verdict above.
Already have a mortgage and considering a new rate instead? Use the Refinance Calculator. See where mortgage rates stand in 2026 before deciding. Before comparing against buying, sanity-check the rent itself with the Rent Affordability Calculator. The same ground is covered chapter by chapter in our book, From Paycheck to Portfolio. The buy side improves sharply for eligible veterans, since a VA loan needs no deposit at all; rerun it with the VA mortgage calculator.