Free decision model · no account

Rent or buy? Change the assumptions that decide it.

Start with measured metro price, asking rent, property tax and the current national mortgage rate. Then compare buyer equity with the portfolio a renter could retain—without hiding the holding period, transaction costs or growth assumptions.

696 evidence-complete metrosEvery assumption editableNo universal verdictSaved in the URL: market only
Preparing the comparison model…
Model boundary

A transparent scenario is still not personal financial advice.

The selected price and rent are metro indexes, not a property quote. The property-tax rate is a population-weighted average across mapped counties with direct ACS evidence. Freddie Mac PMMS is a national conforming-loan average for a defined application set, not the rate a lender will offer you.

Insurance and maintenance begin as standardized assumptions because no free national property-level source supports precise defaults. HOA, PMI, utilities, renovation, tax deductions and capital-gains taxes are omitted. Add them to your interpretation or replace the inputs with a property-specific underwriting model.

Read the reproducible national study and full methodology →