NYS Real Estate Agent to Buy, Sell or Rent Your Home

Buy vs Rent Comparison Calculator

Location-aware · State tax & cost presets

Buy vs Rent Comparison Calculator

Pick a state and the location-driven costs — property tax, insurance, transfer taxes, closing costs — fill in automatically. Every number stays editable. Add a second location to compare states head-to-head.

Adjust the numbers to see the result.

Your situation (applies everywhere)

You rent and save monthly. The tool compares four buying strategies — FHA 3.5%, 5%, 10%, and 20% down (save first, then buy, with PMI where it applies, while the home price rises) — against renting and investing that savings forever. Uses Location A.
The single biggest lever in the whole comparison.
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What the renter earns on savings.
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Each line = how far ahead (or behind) buying is vs renting in that location. Crossing the zero line is the breakeven year.

At year 7

How this works. Both paths spend the same monthly budget. The buyer pays the mortgage, taxes, insurance, and upkeep; the renter pays rent and invests the difference plus the down payment and closing cash they never spent. "Ahead" means more wealth if you cashed out that year — selling costs (agent commission + that state's transfer taxes) are subtracted from the buyer's side. State presets are approximate statewide medians — property taxes especially vary a lot by county and town, so override them with your target area's real numbers when you have them. In Starting from $0 mode, low-down-payment loans assume typical PMI: FHA adds a 1.75% upfront fee to the loan plus 0.85%/yr for the life of the loan (refinancing later can remove it — not modeled); 5% and 10% conventional loans carry 0.75%/0.40%/yr PMI until the loan falls below 80% of the home's value. This is an estimate for thinking, not financial advice.