How to use the buy vs rent calculator

What the calculator compares

The calculator follows two households in comparable homes. One buys and one rents. Both spend the same total on housing each month, which keeps the comparison fair.

Whenever the buyer’s monthly cost is higher, the renter invests the difference. If the renter’s cost is ever higher, the buyer invests the difference instead. The renter also invests the cash the buyer spends at closing: the down payment, closing costs and moving allowance.

At the end of the time horizon, the buyer’s net worth is the home’s value, minus the remaining mortgage, minus the cost of selling, plus any savings. The renter’s net worth is the investment portfolio. The headline result is the gap between the two.

The starting values on the page are illustrative planning inputs, not market data, and are not a statement about current prices, rents or rates where you live. The methodology page describes the model in more detail.

The inputs, group by group

The form is split into collapsible groups. The home, market assumptions and renting groups are open at first. The labels below match the page.

• The home you would buy. Home price, down payment, mortgage rate, amortization, mortgage term, rate at renewal, compounding and province. A down payment below the legal minimum is raised to that minimum, with a warning. Leave the renewal rate blank to keep the same rate. Checkboxes cover the Ontario first-time buyer rebate and a home in the City of Toronto.
• Closing costs and fees. An override for transfer tax and registration, plus inspection and appraisal, other closing costs, moving and set-up, and whether the default-insurance premium is added to the mortgage.
• Running costs of owning. Property tax as a share of value, home insurance, condo or strata fee and its growth, maintenance and repairs, extra utilities compared with renting, and a yearly reserve for special assessments or big repairs. A separate group takes suite or roommate rent, a vacancy allowance and tax on that income.
• Renting. Monthly rent for a comparable home, rent growth, tenant insurance, and optionally how often the renter moves and what each move costs.
• Market assumptions and investing the difference. Home price growth, inflation, investment return, tax drag on returns (0% models a TFSA or FHSA) and a checkbox for whether the renter invests the down payment and closing costs.
• When you sell. How long you would stay, agent commission, GST on commission, legal fees on sale, staging and other costs, and a break penalty that applies only if the sale does not land on a renewal date.

How to read the result

The top panel gives a one-line verdict, such as buying or renting coming out ahead by a dollar amount after a stated number of years. Beneath it are six figures: buyer net worth, renter net worth, break-even, the first-month cost for each household, cash to close and the mortgage payment.

Break-even is the first month from which buying stays ahead, after selling costs. If buying never stays ahead, the page says there is none within 40 years. Closing costs and interest-heavy early payments often push break-even several years out. See break-even explained.

The panels below explain the verdict: what drives the result, net worth by year (with an optional table), where the money goes, how the answer changes with the length of stay, and what would make buy vs rent a tie, one assumption at a time.

The Show in today’s dollars toggle converts results using your inflation input, so a dollar in year 20 is compared with a dollar today. See real vs nominal dollars.

A worked example with the starting values

With no changes, the calculator uses a $600,000 home with 20% down ($120,000), a 4.5% fixed rate, a 25-year amortization, a five-year term, Alberta, rent of $2,300 a month, 3% rent growth, 3.5% home price growth, 2% inflation, a 5.5% investment return and a 10-year stay. These are illustrative inputs only.

The mortgage is $480,000 with a payment of about $2,657 a month. The owner’s first-month cost is about $3,757 and the renter’s is $2,325. Cash to close is $126,380, which includes the down payment, closing costs and moving allowance.

After 10 years the buyer’s net worth is about $460,065 and the renter’s is about $418,379, so buying is ahead by about $41,686 ($34,197 in today’s dollars). Break-even is about 5.7 years, and at a five-year horizon the two are almost level.

The result depends on the assumptions. With 1.5% yearly price growth instead of 3.5%, renting finishes ahead by about $90,001. At 0% growth, renting is ahead by about $174,013. With a 7.5% investment return, renting is ahead by about $25,898. In the tie-point panel, buying stays ahead only if price growth is above about 2.91%, rent is above about $2,067 or the investment return is below about 6.77%.

With the probability sliders at their starting positions, buying finished ahead in 61% of 1,000 simulated futures. The median outcome was buying ahead by about $44,850 and the 10th percentile was renting ahead by about $153,622.

A sensible order of operations

Start with the defaults and read the verdict to get a feel for the scale. Then work through these steps.

• Replace what you know: price, the rate in your mortgage quote, province, rent for a comparable home, and actual property tax and insurance.
• Replace the costs you can check, such as a condo fee, closing costs from your lawyer and how long you realistically expect to stay.
• Leave home price growth, rent growth, inflation and investment return near their starting values until you have a reason to change them.
• Open the tie-point panel to see how far each assumption would have to move before the answer flips.
• Use the sensitivity grid to change two assumptions at once: price growth with investment return, mortgage rate with rent, or years you stay with price growth. See sensitivity analysis.
• Check the probability panel, then try a different time horizon. A short stay and a long stay can give opposite answers.

Saving, sharing and exporting

Under the results, type a name and choose Save this scenario. Saved scenarios appear in a list with the years and the result. Choose Load to restore one or Delete to remove it. They stay on your device, are not sent anywhere, and the page keeps up to 20. To compare, load each one and read its result. The “Try a scenario” buttons above the form load ready-made cases, and Reset restores the starting values.

The toolbar above the results has three more buttons. Copy link copies an address containing every input you changed, so others see what you see. Download CSV saves your assumptions and a year-by-year table, in future dollars even when the toggle is on. Print opens your browser’s print dialogue.

A saved scenario is only as good as its inputs, so note the date and source of the rent, rate and price you used. Save a base case, then one scenario for each assumption you doubt. See scenario analysis.