The Home Decision Calculator
Renting and buying both have hidden costs. Rent vs. Buy accounts for the opportunity cost of your down payment, home equity, invested savings, and more — so you can see the full financial picture.
Free · No ads · No account · Nothing leaves your phone
A real answer, not a rule of thumb
Most calculators stop at the monthly payment. This one runs both paths all the way out — equity, appreciation, invested savings, taxes — and tells you who ends up ahead.
What it models
Both sides are carried forward to a single number: what you're actually worth after each time horizon.
The renter invests the down payment and closing costs — and any month renting is cheaper — at your expected market return.
Find the point where the winning strategy switches — and the appreciation or stock return that would flip it.
A grid of home appreciation against stock return, so you can see how fragile — or safe — the answer really is.
PMI that cancels itself at 20% equity, HOA, maintenance, closing costs, property tax, insurance and utilities on both sides.
Compares itemizing against the standard deduction each year, and invests the difference — shrinking as your interest does.
No catch
Every feature is unlocked for everyone. There's no Pro tier, nothing is held back behind a paywall, and there are no ads anywhere in the app.
Optional
I build these on nights and weekends and give them away. If Rent vs. Buy helped you think through a big decision, you're welcome to throw a coffee my way.
Buy me a coffeeCompletely optional. It unlocks nothing, because the app is already free in full.