The Renter's True Cost Worksheet
What does another year of renting actually cost you? It's not just the rent — it's the equity and appreciation you'd have built by owning instead. Three steps. Real numbers. The same worksheet from the strategy calls.
Step 1
What you hand your landlord
Your rent today, and what it becomes after next year's renewal.
Step 2
What you'd pay yourself
If you have a real quote, use those numbers. Otherwise these defaults estimate the principal you'd build in year one.
Step 3 · The Reveal
The real cost of waiting one more year
Rent paid, minus the equity and appreciation you'd have built by owning instead.
Rent gone
$0
Equity built
$0
Appreciation
$0
The Details
Run your numbers
The verdict updates as you type.
The True Cost of Renting Another Year
Most renters look at their lease and only see the monthly payment. The real cost of waiting to buy a home is bigger than that — it's the rent you pay, plus the equity and appreciation you would have built by owning instead. This worksheet puts a dollar figure on that gap, one year at a time.
Why this worksheet uses one year, not thirty
A lot of rent-vs-buy calculators ask you to commit to a 5, 10, or 30-year timeline. The problem is, nobody actually knows what their life looks like in 30 years. This worksheet narrows the question: what does waiting just one more year cost you? That's a decision you can actually make. If next year's number is small, renting is fine. If it's big, you have something to think about.
What goes into the calculation
Three numbers drive the result. Rent gone is twelve months of your current rent — money that left your account and isn't coming back. Equity built is the principal you would have paid down in year one of a standard 30-year amortizing mortgage. Appreciation is the estimated increase in your home's value over that same year. Add them together, and you get the true cost of renting one more year instead of buying.
Why rent paid is "gone"
Renting isn't throwing money away — you're paying for a place to live, with flexibility and no maintenance risk. But every dollar of rent leaves with the month. A mortgage payment is different. Part of it pays interest, taxes, and insurance (those are gone too) but a meaningful slice goes to principal — your ownership stake. This worksheet only counts that principal slice as "equity built," not the whole mortgage payment, which is why the comparison is honest.
How year-one principal is estimated
The worksheet runs a standard 30-year fixed amortization using your home price, down payment, and interest rate. For each of the first 12 months, it splits the payment into interest and principal, then sums the principal. On a $350,000 home at 6.75% with 5% down, year-one principal is roughly $3,800-$4,200. Lower rates and bigger down payments build principal faster. The math is the same one your lender uses on the first page of your closing disclosure.
Why appreciation matters more than people think
When you own a home, you don't need to put 100% down to capture 100% of the appreciation. A 5% down payment on a $350,000 home means $17,500 of your cash controls $350,000 of asset. If the home appreciates 4% in a year, that's $14,000 of value gained — on $17,500 of cash invested. Renters don't get that leverage. Even modest appreciation, applied to the full home value, can be a bigger number than the down payment itself.
Why we excluded property taxes, insurance, and PMI
This worksheet is deliberately built around one comparison: rent paid versus principal and appreciation gained. Taxes, insurance, and PMI vary too much by state and program to model honestly in a quick worksheet, and they're an expense whether you rent or own (your landlord builds them into your rent). The numbers shown here aren't a full monthly payment estimate — for that, use the Mortgage Payment calculator. The point of this worksheet is to make the cost of waiting visible, not to replace a loan estimate.
When the answer might still be "keep renting"
If you might move within two years, if your job is unstable, if you haven't saved closing costs, or if your local rent is genuinely below market — renting can be the right call. This worksheet doesn't push you to buy. It just makes the cost of not buying a real number instead of a feeling. A strategy call is the right next step when the number looks meaningful and you want to know how close you actually are to qualifying.
More calculators
This worksheet is for educational and estimation purposes only. It does not constitute a loan offer, pre-approval, or commitment to lend. Year-one principal is approximated from a standard 30-year amortization; actual amortization depends on your loan program, rate lock, and closing date. Property taxes, insurance, PMI, HOA, and closing costs are not included in the cost comparison.