Compare the total cost of renting a place against buying one over the number of years you expect to stay. Enter your monthly rent, the home price, your down payment, mortgage rate and term, plus rough yearly costs of ownership like property tax and maintenance. The calculator sums what you would pay in rent across the period and stacks it against the buyer total of mortgage payments and ownership costs, less the home equity you build up. It then shows which option is cheaper over that horizon and by how much. Buying tends to win the longer you stay, while renting can win over short stays, and this makes the crossover concrete for your own numbers. This is a simplified model that ignores appreciation and investment of savings, so treat it as a guide. Everything runs locally in your browser.