Housing
Rent or buy?
Buying builds equity but ties up cash and costs a fortune to get into and out of. Renting frees that cash to invest. The honest question isn't "is buying better" — it's "how long would you have to stay for buying to come out ahead," counting what your down payment could have earned elsewhere.
Your numbers
Net worth, if you sold and left
Each line is one path, valued as if you sold and moved on that year. Where buying overtakes renting is the number of years that makes owning worth it.
What it works out to
What this does and doesn't account for
The renter is assumed to invest the cash buying would tie up — the down payment and closing costs — plus any month where renting costs less. That opportunity cost is the piece most rent-vs-buy tools leave out, and it's why the breakeven depends so heavily on the gap between home appreciation and investment return.
It assumes a 30-year fixed mortgage with no refinance, rates that hold steady, and no income-tax effects — most people take the standard deduction now, so the mortgage-interest deduction rarely changes the answer. Selling costs apply at the year you leave.
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