Financial Calculators

Rent vs. Buy

Should you rent or should you buy your home? It takes more than looking at your mortgage payment to answer this question. This calculator helps you weed through the fees, taxes, and monthly payments to help you make a good financial decision.

Rent vs. Buy

Your home purchase breaks even after BREAKEVEN_YEARS years.

This is based on your home's equity minus a HOME_COMMISION_RATE sales commission paid to brokers or real estate agents. It also assumes your home will appreciate at HOME_APPRECIATION_RATE per year and you have an income tax rate of TAX_RATE. If you cannot remain in your home for at least BREAKEVEN_YEARS you should consider continuing to rent. Your current monthly rent is MONTHLY_RENT.

The expected inflation rate of INFLATION_RATE annually was used to estimate future rent. The rate of return for investments was entered at INVESTMENT_RETURN.

Loan Information

For MONTHLY_TOTAL_PMT and a downpayment of TOTAL_FOR_DOWNPAYMENT you can puchase a home with a price of PRICE_OF_HOME. This is for a LENGTH_OF_LOAN year mortgage at INTEREST_RATE in the amount of LOAN_AMOUNT. Total closing costs for this loan are estimated at TOTAL_CLOSING_COSTS.

Your MONTHLY_TOTAL_PMT monthly payment consists of:

Principal and Interest MONTHLY_PI

PMI MONTHLY_PMI

Taxes PROPERY_TAX_MONTHLY

Insurance HOME_INSURANCE_MONTHLY

Closing costs of TOTAL_CLOSING_COSTS consists of:

Amount paid of points POINTS_PAID_AMT

Origination fee LOAN_ORIGINATION_AMT

Other closing costs OTHER_CLOSING_COSTS

To avoid PMI payments a DOWNPAYMENT_20 downpayment is required. This equals 20% of your home's purchase price. The total amount of cash required for a 20% downpayment plus closing costs would be CLOSING_CLOSING_COSTS_20.

Analysis of Future Payments

**REPEATING GROUP**

Information and interactive calculators are made available to you as self-help tools for your independent use. We can not and do not guarantee their accuracy or their applicability to your circumstances. We encourage you to seek personalized advice from qualified professionals regarding all personal finance issues.

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Definitions

Price of home:	Purchase price of the home you wish to buy.
Cash on hand:	Cash you have for the downpayment and closing costs.
Interest rate:	The current interest rate you can receive on your mortgage.
Term in years:	The number of years over which you will repay this loan.
Property tax rate:	Your property tax rate. 1% for a $100,000 home equals $1,000 per year in property taxes.
Home insurance rate:	Your homeowners' insurance rate. 0.5% for a $100,000 home equals $500 per in for homeowners insurance.
Loan origination rate:	The percentage the lending institution charges for its origination fee. 1% for a $100,000 home equals $1,000.
Points paid:	The total number of points paid to reduce the interest rate of your mortgage. Each point costs 1% of your mortgage balance.
Other closing costs:	Estimate of all other closing costs for this loan. This should include filing fees, appraiser fees and any other misc. fees paid.
Total closing costs:	Total up front costs to close your loan. This is the sum of the loan origination fee, amount paid for points and other closing costs.
Total for downpayment:	Total funds remaining for downpayment.
Loan amount:	Total amount of loan.
Investment return:	Annual percentage return you would receive if you invested your closing costs and downpayment instead of purchasing a home.
Monthly rent payment:	Amount you currently pay for rent per month.
Income tax rate:	Your current marginal income tax rate.
Expected inflation rate:	Inflation rate used to adjust amounts subject to annual increases. This includes rent, insurance and tax payments.
Home appreciates at:	Annual appreciation you expect in the home you are purchasing.
Home sales commission:	The percent of your homes selling price you expect to pay to a broker or real estate agent when you sell your home.
House payment:	Total of principal, interest, taxes and insurance paid per month for your home. Insurance includes PMI and homeowners.
Principal payment:	Total of principal paid per month on your mortgage.
Tax savings:	The value of the tax deduction you receive on your mortgage's interest and home's property taxes. For example, if you have $900 in interest and $100 property taxes per month, the value of the tax deduction would be $280. (At a tax rate of 28%)
Net house payment:	Your house payment minus the value of the tax deduction and principal payment.
Net home price:	Net selling price of your home after subtracting any sales commissions.
Monthly PI:	Monthly principal and interest payment.
Monthly PMI:	Monthly cost of Principal Mortgage Insurance (PMI). For loans secured with less than 20% down, PMI is estimated at 0.5% of your loan balance each year.

information and interactive calculators are made available to you as self-help tools for your independent use. We can not and do not guarantee their accuracy or their applicability to your circumstances. We encourage you to seek personalized advice from qualified professionals regarding all personal finance issues.