Housing Data / Rent vs. Own DCF
What does staying actually cost?
Compare buying with renting the same kind of home, including financing, operating costs, transaction friction, recovered equity, and opportunity cost. See how the answer changes with your length of stay.
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New analysisNotes and scenario context
Saving stores these financial assumptions and source notes privately in your signed-in Hub account, not the external housing API. No automatic save or benchmark refresh changes the snapshot. Model: rent-own.v1.
You can save this unfinished draft now and pick up later. Blank and unfinished inputs are preserved; results and comparisons become available once the calculation inputs are valid.
A name is optional; this will save as "Untitled analysis".
Start with area evidence, not hidden assumptions
Use a ZIP/ZCTA or county reference, then replace it with property and lease quotes where possible. Nothing here silently overwrites your inputs, predicts returns, or supplies a live mortgage quote.
Loading area price, rent, and historical benchmarks...
Build your scenario
Purchase price, comparable rent, and a mortgage quote are intentionally blank. Other starting values are illustrative editable assumptions, not local estimates. Review every section before interpreting a result. Enter zero explicitly for a cost you intend to exclude.
Purchase, financing & time horizon8 inputs / review assumptions
Prefer the actual property price. Area medians are starting references, not appraisals.
Quote / manual value required unless optional
Prefer a quote for a similar property. The ACS reference is gross rent across rental housing, not a single-family rental quote.
Quote / manual value required unless optional
Not a lost expense: remaining equity is recovered or paid off at exit.
Illustrative template / not a local quote
Enter the lender's note rate, not fee-inclusive APR: points and fees are separate inputs. The housing API has no live mortgage quotes. Required unless buying entirely with cash.
Quote / manual value required unless optional
Fixed-rate, fully amortizing monthly payments; no refinance or adjustable-rate assumptions.
Illustrative template / not a local quote
Rounded to the nearest month. Exit assumes selling the property and settling the loan.
Illustrative template / not a local quote
Curves and sustained break-even are evaluated only through this horizon.
Illustrative template / not a local quote
For first-year housing cash-flow burden only, not loan qualification or a full debt-to-income test.
Quote / manual value required unless optional
Buying & selling transaction costs7 inputs / review assumptions
Fees only. Exclude loan points and refundable escrow entered separately. Template, not a local fee estimate.
Illustrative template / not a local quote
Additional nonrecoverable fees not already counted in the percentage.
Illustrative template / not a local quote
Paid upfront. Do not also include these fees in buyer closing costs.
Illustrative template / not a local quote
Cash outlay only; no automatic assumption that repairs add equal resale value or qualify as tax basis.
Illustrative template / not a local quote
Locked up at purchase, returned nominally at exit. Ongoing taxes/insurance are budgeted separately; escrow balance changes are not modeled.
Illustrative template / not a local quote
Negotiated brokerage, transfer and other sale fees. Template, not a local quote.
Illustrative template / not a local quote
Extra exit fees not already counted in the selling percentage.
Illustrative template / not a local quote
Owning: recurring costs9 inputs / review assumptions
Use an assessor/closing estimate for this property, not an inferred nationwide tax rate.
Illustrative template / not a local quote
Independent of home appreciation; assessment caps, reassessments, and local rules require your estimate.
Illustrative template / not a local quote
Enter a quote including any required flood/fire coverage. Grows with expense inflation.
Illustrative template / not a local quote
Budget is assumed spent and grows with expense inflation, not market value. Unspent reserve assets and future lump-sum repair schedules are not modeled.
Illustrative template / not a local quote
Grows with expense inflation. Add expected special assessments to the maintenance budget.
Illustrative template / not a local quote
Match the rental's included utilities. ACS gross rent includes utilities; a zero here is not a local utility estimate.
Illustrative template / not a local quote
Simplified conventional PMI, charged only when original loan-to-value exceeds 80%. Verify your lender's premium; not FHA/VA mortgage insurance.
Illustrative template / not a local quote
Uses amortization against original price, not assumed appreciation. Actual eligibility/cancellation rules vary.
Illustrative template / not a local quote
Manual incremental benefit versus renting, constant nominal dollars. Zero by default; no automatic mortgage/SALT deduction is assumed.
Illustrative template / not a local quote
Renting: lease & move-in costs5 inputs / review assumptions
Grows with expense inflation. Verify the actual quote.
Illustrative template / not a local quote
Parking, utilities or other costs not already in the rent figure. Avoid adding utilities twice if using ACS gross rent.
Illustrative template / not a local quote
Application, broker, and incremental move-in fees. Exclude the refundable security deposit.
Illustrative template / not a local quote
Cash tied up initially, not an immediate lost expense. No interest accrual on the deposit.
Illustrative template / not a local quote
Nominal amount refunded at exit. Enter expected damage/fee deductions here.
Illustrative template / not a local quote
Future growth & opportunity cost4 inputs / review assumptions
A user scenario, not a forecast. Historical API CAGR can be used explicitly as a scenario reference.
Illustrative template / not a local quote
Applied at lease anniversaries. Historical ACS rent growth is not a forecast for this lease.
Illustrative template / not a local quote
Applies at yearly anniversaries to insurance, maintenance, HOA, utilities, renters insurance, and tenant extras.
Illustrative template / not a local quote
Alternative return on cash, after tax/fees. Used once for month-end discounting and opportunity cost, not added twice. Not a guaranteed investment return.
Illustrative template / not a local quote
Optional sale tax scenario3 inputs / review assumptions
Zero means no sale gain tax included. Simplified gain calculation only; consult your actual tax situation.
Illustrative template / not a local quote
Manual eligibility/amount, not automatically assumed based on filing or occupancy status.
Illustrative template / not a local quote
Qualifying capital improvements/costs beyond purchase price. Cash is entered separately above; this field changes sale tax only.
Illustrative template / not a local quote
Enter your key quotes to calculate
No purchase price, rent, or current interest rate is invented. An all-cash purchase can leave the mortgage-rate input blank. Manual analysis works even if the area API is unavailable.
- Purchase price: Enter a value, or zero if deliberately excluded.
- Comparable monthly rent: Enter a value, or zero if deliberately excluded.
- Fixed mortgage note rate: Enter a value, or zero if deliberately excluded.
How the housing DCF works
Each month-end comparison assumes you exit then: sell the home, pay selling costs and entered sale taxes, repay the remaining mortgage, recover refundable owner escrow, and recover the entered rental deposit percentage. Principal payments are cash outflows but are offset by increased exit equity. Negative equity is a shortfall, not silently floored to zero.
All upfront and month-end cash flows accrue at your after-tax opportunity return. Net exit costs are discounted back at that same effective monthly rate. This is equivalent to comparing what happens if the cheaper option's cash-flow differences earn that return; opportunity cost is not charged a second time. Present values are discounted dollars, not a separate CPI-adjusted purchasing-power estimate.
Home appreciation compounds monthly from the annual scenario. Rent increases and expense budgets step up at annual anniversaries. Property tax bill growth is independent of home value. Maintenance starts as a percentage of initial price and grows with expense inflation. The fixed-rate mortgage amortizes monthly and stops at payoff. Simplified PMI uses original price and amortization, not future appreciation; actual lender rules and nonconventional loan insurance differ.
Tax benefits and sale taxes are optional manual scenarios. No itemization, SALT limits, capital-gains exclusion eligibility, or automatic deduction is inferred. Additional tax basis changes only the simplified sale gain calculation; its cash cost must be entered separately. Escrow balance changes, refinancing, adjustable rates, major future lump-sum repairs, income changes, and nonfinancial benefits/risks are not modeled.
First break-even and sustained-through-horizon break-even are different: curves can cross more than once. A financial advantage is not a guaranteed profit, loan approval, investment prediction, or personalized tax advice. Compare equivalent properties and utilities, verify local taxes/fees/insurance, and test conservative return assumptions.
Calculations are local until you explicitly save. Saving a named scenario stores its financial assumptions and source notes privately in your Hub account. The external housing API receives area reference queries only, not your mortgage quote, household income, or saved analysis. Property URL, property-service, and rental-comp sections are currently hidden and do not make background property-service requests. CSV export includes the scenario and applied-reference provenance.