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Should you buy, or keep renting?

Most people buy because everyone around them is buying. This calculator gives you the honest comparison instead: the full cost of owning for however many years you choose, including maintenance, appreciation, and what it costs to sell at the end, against renting the same years and investing the money you did not put into a house. I am a broker; a sale pays me. This tool will still tell you to keep renting when the numbers say so.

The purchase

Purchase price ($)

Down payment (%)

Rate (% APR)

Term (years)

Buyer closing costs ($)

Owning it

Levy rate ($/$1,000)

HOA dues ($/mo)

Insurance ($/mo)

Maintenance (%/yr of value)

Appreciation (%/yr)

Years before selling

Selling at the end

Commission (%)

Local excise tax (%)

State excise tax uses Washington's graduated brackets automatically; see the sale proceeds calculator for the bracket math.

Taxes

Filing status

Marginal tax rate (%)

Standard deduction ($)

SALT cap ($)

Other itemized ($/yr)

Capital gains rate (%)

Mortgage interest counts only on the first $750,000 of the loan, and deductions only help to the extent itemizing beats your standard deduction. Property tax counts toward the SALT cap, which has changed with recent law; enter the cap that applies to you. The home-sale exclusion ($500,000 married, $250,000 single) applies only after two-plus years. Capital gains tax is also applied to the renter's investment portfolio, because that is only fair. Confirm all of this with a CPA; these fields are simplifications.

The renting alternative

Rent today ($/mo)

Rent growth (%/yr)

Investment return (%/yr)

The renter invests the down payment, closing costs, and every month that renting is cheaper than owning. The owner invests any month that owning is cheaper. All growth rates are illustrative and adjustable; nobody can promise you 4% appreciation or 5% returns.

The verdict, on your assumptions

Net position, year by year

Buying: home value minus selling costs minus loan balance, plus anything the owner invested. Renting: the invested portfolio.

Buying, net if sold Renting, invested portfolio

View year-by-year table

What the ownership years actually cost

This calculator is educational and illustrative, not financial, tax, lending, legal, or investment advice. The tax model is a simplification: it applies the $750,000 acquisition-debt limit on mortgage interest, the SALT cap you enter, your standard deduction, and the federal home-sale exclusion assuming you meet the two-year ownership and use tests, and it taxes both the seller's gain beyond the exclusion and the renter's investment gains at the rate you enter. It does not model AMT, income phase-outs, state taxes outside SALT, depreciation, 1031 exchanges, special assessments, or rent stability differences; those can change the answer, so talk to a CPA or financial planner about your situation. There are also real reasons to buy or rent that are not financial. The point of this tool is that the decision deserves your own numbers, not the neighborhood's momentum. Built by Prithvi Dhelia, real estate broker at Beyond Real Estate. Related reading: the total monthly cost of owning a condo in Kirkland.