Home Break-Even &
Rent-vs-Buy Calculator

Accurately models your true cost of ownership. Hover the i icon on each column to see the formula. Basic Net correctly uses interest paid only � not total P+I � to avoid double-counting principal paydown.

Monthly Payment
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Basic Break-Even
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Advanced Break-Even
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Adv. Net @ 5 Yrs
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Welcome to the Home Break-Even Calculator

Never owned a home? That's exactly who this is built for.

This tool answers one key question: If I buy this home today, how long do I need to stay before owning makes more financial sense than renting?

  • Enter your numbers on the left — home price, down payment, interest rate, and ongoing costs.
  • Basic Break-Even shows when the house itself starts paying off (what you put in vs. what you'd walk away with).
  • Advanced Break-Even adds the full picture: rent you're no longer paying, and what your down payment could have earned if invested instead.
  • The year-by-year table below shows the math at every stage so nothing is hidden.
  • Use the 💬 AI chat (bottom right) to ask questions about your specific numbers in plain English.

Not sure about some values? The placeholders are reasonable starting estimates — adjust as you learn more.

Calculator Inputs
Built for first-time home buyers. Enter your numbers and the calculator estimates when buying starts to make more sense than renting.

Start here

This calculator answers one main question: if you buy this home today, how long do you need to stay before the money works in your favor?

It compares what you put into the house, what you may get back when you sell, and in the advanced view, what rent you avoided while owning.

Use it as a planning tool, not as tax, lending, or investment advice.

Core Numbers
The price you expect to pay for the home.
The cash you pay up front toward the home price.
Your mortgage rate. A higher rate usually pushes break-even farther out.
How many years the mortgage runs, such as 15 or 30 years.
One-time buying costs like lender fees, title fees, and prepaid items.
How much you expect the home value to grow each year on average.
Ongoing Costs
The percent you may lose when selling, such as agent commissions and other selling fees.
Your estimated yearly property taxes.
Your yearly homeowners insurance cost.
Repairs and upkeep. For many first-time buyers, this is easy to underestimate.
Monthly HOA dues, if the neighborhood or community has them.
Monthly PMI payment. Applies when down payment is less than 20%. Leave blank if you have 20%+ down.
How far out you want the yearly comparison table to go.
? Advanced settings
What you would likely pay in rent each month if you did not buy.
How much you expect rent to rise each year.
Estimated return that your upfront cash could have earned elsewhere.
Estimated yearly tax savings from owning, if any. Keep this at 0 if you are unsure.

How to read results

  • Monthly Payment shows principal and interest only. Taxes, insurance, maintenance, and HOA are tracked separately in the table.
  • Basic Net focuses only on the house itself: cash back from a sale minus your upfront cash, interest paid, and ownership costs.
  • Advanced Net starts with Basic Net, then adds rent avoided and tax benefit, and subtracts opportunity cost on your upfront cash.
  • Break-even is the first point where the chosen net value turns positive. Before that point, you are still financially behind.
Important: This is an estimate. It does not include every real-life factor like utilities, renovations, moving costs, unexpected repairs, or changes in tax law and mortgage terms.
Monthly Payment
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Principal + interest only
Basic Break-Even
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House-only math
Advanced Break-Even
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Includes rent saved & opp. cost
Advanced Net @ 5 Yrs
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Quick comparison benchmark
📊 What is Basic Break-Even?

Think of this as the house-only scorecard. It answers: "If I sell after N years, do I get more money back than I put in?"

It adds up everything you spent on the house — down payment, closing costs, all mortgage interest, property taxes, insurance, maintenance, HOA, and PMI — then compares that to what you'd pocket after selling.

When Basic Net turns positive, you've recovered your costs from the home itself. This is your baseline — it doesn't care about rent or investing.

Example: If you put $120K in and after 10 years the math says +$15K, you've broken even and come out ahead on the house alone.

🏠 What is Advanced Break-Even?

This is the full rent-vs-buy comparison. It starts with Basic Net and adds two more factors:

  • Rent avoided: Every month you own, you're not paying rent. That's real money you keep. If your equivalent rent is $2,500/mo, that's $30K/year counted in your favor.
  • Opportunity cost: Your down payment could have been invested (e.g., in index funds). This estimates what it would have grown to — that's a real tradeoff of buying.

Advanced break-even is often earlier than basic when rent in your area is high, because you're "saving" that rent every single month.

New to this? Start by entering the rent you'd pay for a similar place in "Rent Avoided" under Advanced Settings.

Year-by-year breakdown
This table shows what happens if you sell after each year. Hover the i icon for the exact formula.
Cost
Gain
Advanced

What each result column means

Year: The point when you sell, after owning for that many full years.
Sale Price: The estimated future home value after appreciation.
Loan Balance: The mortgage principal still left to pay when you sell.
Selling Costs: Fees tied to selling the home.
Interest Paid: Mortgage interest paid up to that point. Principal is not counted here.
Taxes + Ins. + Maint. + HOA + PMI: The running total of the major ownership costs outside principal and interest. PMI is included while LTV exceeds 80%.
Cash Back: Roughly what you walk away with from the sale after selling costs and remaining loan balance are paid.
Rent Saved: The rent you did not have to pay because you owned instead.
Opp. Cost: The estimated growth your upfront cash could have had elsewhere.
Tax Benefit: Estimated ownership-related tax savings, if any.
Basic Net: The home-only result.
Advanced Net: The more complete rent-vs-buy result.
Yeari Sale Pricei Loan Balancei Selling Costsi Interest Paidi Taxes + Ins. + Maint. + HOA + PMIi Cash Backi Rent Savedi Opp. Costi Tax Benefiti Basic Neti Advanced Neti
Yr 1
,000,635,260,042,500,105,000,327-,437-,763
Yr 2
,540,911,558,725,000,072,900,167-,653-,920
Yr 3
,636,803,895,024,500,939,727,552-,585-,410
Yr 4
,305,286,271,914,000,748,509,516-,166-,174
Yr 5
,564,333,690,368,500,542,274,095-,326-,147
Yr 6
,431,914,150,356,000,367,052,326-,989-,263
Yr 7
,924,998,655,848,500,272,874,250-,076-,452
Yr 8
,062,552,204,809,000,306,770,909-,503-,643
Yr 9
,864,540,800,205,500,523,773,349-,182-,758
Yr 10
,350,925,444,997,000,980,916,619-,017-,719
Yr 11
,540,666,138,145,500,736,234,768-,909-,442
Yr 12
,457,720,882,606,000,854,761,851-,751-,842
Yr 13
,120,041,678,334,500,401,534,927-,433-,826
Yr 14
,554,580,529,279,000,445,590,056-,834+,700
Yr 15
,780,284,435,391,500,062,967,303-,829+,836
Disclaimer: Planning tool only. Does not include utilities, moving costs, renovation spend, HOA special assessments, seller repair concessions, seller concessions, or tax law edge cases. PMI is estimated and may differ from your lender's actual terms. Consult a financial advisor before making purchase decisions.
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