Rent vs. Buy Calculator

Updated October 2026 · Rudy Flores

Owning and renting are both good choices at the right time. Change the assumptions to see how long you would need to stay for buying to pay off.

Zillow puts typical rent for the San Diego area near $2,994 a month, while owning a typical home there costs an estimated $6,220 a month with tax and insurance. The fields below start from numbers in that range; change them to match the home you are comparing.

A simplified model that ignores tax effects. Results depend heavily on the assumptions. Nothing here is a loan offer, a rate quote, tax or legal advice. Rates shown come from public data and change often.

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