Housing Cost Intelligence

The true cost of renting, buying, and owning a home.

OwningCost is a housing-cost intelligence platform. Calculators that go beyond the mortgage payment, ZIP-level local data, financing comparisons across FHA, VA, USDA, and conventional — built for real housing decisions, not lead generation.

See your true monthly cost Browse calculators
Independent. Use the tools anonymously — your inputs never leave your browser.
Built for real decisions
25+housing calculators
6loan types covered
0signups required
100%transparent math
Three questions, answered

Housing math that reflects reality.

Every tool on OwningCost exists to answer a question real renters, buyers, and owners ask — no vanity calculators, no lender bait.

What will this actually cost me each month?

Principal and interest are only the start. See the full monthly figure with taxes, insurance, HOA, PMI, and a realistic maintenance reserve included.

True Monthly Cost

Am I better off renting or buying?

A side-by-side comparison of total renting cost versus total ownership cost — including opportunity cost, appreciation, and your time horizon.

Rent vs Buy

Can I actually afford this home?

Pressure-test a price against your income, debts, down payment, and reserves. Includes our House Poor Risk Score — not just a max-DTI ceiling.

Affordability Check
True Monthly Cost

The mortgage payment is only 65% of the story.

Generic calculators show a principal-and-interest figure. Then property tax arrives. Then insurance renews. Then the HVAC dies. OwningCost shows the complete picture up front — with ZIP-aware defaults so it reflects your market.

  • Every line item, in one place. Principal, interest, property tax, home insurance, PMI, HOA, and a realistic maintenance reserve — all in one monthly figure.
  • ZIP-aware defaults. Local tax rates, insurance averages, and maintenance costs preloaded so estimates reflect your specific market, not a national average.
  • Built for comparison. Stack scenarios side by side — different prices, down payments, loan types, or ZIPs.

Sample · $425,000 home

$3,533
Principal & interest30-yr fixed · 6.75% $2,205
Property tax1.5% of home value $531
Home insuranceStandard HO-3 coverage $142
PMINot required at 20% down $0
HOASuburban association $300
Maintenance reserve~1% of value annually $354
Rent vs Buy

Compare your specific scenario, side by side.

The right answer depends on your time horizon, your market, and your trade-offs — not on a national narrative. Run your numbers and see.

Renting

$2,650/mo apartment

$159,000
Total 5-year cost · DFW metro sample
  • Monthly rent$2,650
  • Est. annual increase3.8%
  • Renter's insurance$18/mo
  • Deposit & move-in$3,200
  • Opportunity cost of cashLow

Often wins when: you plan to move within 3–5 years, want flexibility, or would rather invest the down payment elsewhere.

Buying

$425,000 home

$147,300
Net 5-year cost after equity & appreciation
  • True monthly cost$3,533
  • Closing costs (3%)$12,750
  • Equity built (5 yr)+$42,180
  • Est. appreciation (3%)+$67,700
  • Selling costs on exit~6%

Often wins when: you'll stay 5+ years, have stable income, and value building equity over liquidity.

Run the rent vs buy calculator
Interactive Tool

Your true monthly cost, live.

Adjust any input. Watch the full cost update in real time. No email, no credit pull, no redirect to a lender.

Your scenario

Home price$425,000
$
Down payment20%
%
Interest rate6.75%
%
Property tax1.5%
%
Loan term
yrs
Insuranceper month
$
HOAper month
$
Maintenance reserve1% / yr
%

True monthly cost

$3,533Full cost of owning · not just mortgage
On a $425,000 home with 20% down at 6.75%, the mortgage alone is $2,205. The full monthly cost is $3,533 — $1,328 more than the mortgage figure suggests.
Principal & interest$2,205
Property tax$531
Home insurance$142
PMI (if < 20% down)$0
HOA$300
Maintenance reserve$354
How this is calculated

Loan amount = home price × (1 − down %). Monthly P&I uses the standard amortization formula: L · r(1+r)ⁿ / ((1+r)ⁿ − 1), with r as the monthly rate and n as the loan term in months.

Property tax = price × tax rate ÷ 12. PMI is included at ~0.75%/yr of the loan when down payment is under 20%. Maintenance defaults to 1%/yr of the home value, divided monthly. All figures are estimates — verify with your lender, insurer, and local assessor.

The Quiet Expenses

The costs that show up after you move in.

Real homeownership comes with recurring expenses no one advertises on Zillow. Here's what the first year actually looks like for a typical $425K home.

Recurring · Yearly$4,250

Maintenance reserve

Roof, HVAC, appliances, water heaters — budget roughly 1% of home value per year for upkeep, or you'll be borrowing for it.

One-time · Move-in$12,750

Closing costs

Origination fees, title insurance, escrow, recording, appraisal. Typically 2–5% of the loan — easy to overlook, hard to avoid.

Recurring · Yearly$6,375

Property tax

Varies widely by state and county — from under 0.5% in Hawaii to over 2% in Texas, New Jersey, and Illinois. Reassessed periodically.

Conditional$0–$285/mo

Private mortgage insurance

Required on most conventional loans under 20% down. Drops off automatically at 78% LTV — and protects the lender, not you.

Recurring · Monthly$50–$600

HOA dues

The range is enormous. A suburban HOA may be $35/mo; a Miami high-rise can hit $1,200. Special assessments can land at any time.

Exit~6% of sale

Selling costs on exit

Agent commissions, staging, concessions, closing on the other side. Selling within three years often means appreciation doesn't cover it.

Financing

Every loan type, modeled honestly.

FHA, VA, USDA, conventional, jumbo, ARM. We model the true cost of each over your hold period — including upfront fees, mortgage insurance, and rate-buydown trade-offs. No lender funnel; just the math.

Conventional 3–20% down · PMI under 20% Loan type FHA 3.5% down · upfront + monthly MIP Loan type VA 0% down · funding fee · no PMI Loan type USDA 0% down · rural-eligible areas Loan type Jumbo Above conforming limits Loan type ARM 5/1, 7/1, 10/1 · adjustable rate Loan type

FHA vs Conventional Calculator — model both side by side over your hold period, including upfront MIP, monthly MIP, conventional PMI, and rate differences. Get a specific dollar answer to "which loan should I pick?"

Compare FHA vs Conventional
Local intelligence

Cost data tuned to your ZIP, not a national average.

Property tax rates vary 4× across the country. Insurance premiums vary 6×. Median rent and home prices vary 10×. A national-average mortgage calculator can't model your specific market — ours can. Every OwningCost calculator pulls from a ZIP-level data layer covering tax rates, insurance averages, median prices and rents, and local risk factors.

  • ZIP-aware defaults across every calculator — taxes, insurance, maintenance, median rent.
  • Risk flags for hurricane, wildfire, flood zones, and tax reassessment volatility.
  • Comparable ZIPs — see how nearby and similar markets stack up on cost.
Sample · Frisco, TX

75034 · Frisco, TX

Sample data
Median home
$612K
Median rent
$2,650/mo
Property tax
2.07%effective
Insurance avg
$1,840/yr
5-yr appreciation
+38%
Risk flags
Tax · Hail

ZIP profiles roll out in phases — top metros first. Enter a ZIP above to be notified when yours is live.

Coming soon

A scenario assistant for housing decisions.

Type a situation in plain English. The assistant walks through the math, surfaces the trade-offs, and helps you understand what a pre-approval doesn't: what's actually comfortable to live with.

  • Compare two scenarios without rebuilding the calculator
  • Explain mortgage terms without the jargon
  • Stress-test your payment against rate hikes or a job change
  • Summarize hidden costs specific to your ZIP and home type
Why OwningCost

Built for real decisions, not lead generation.

We are not a lender, broker, or realtor. We don't get paid when you close — the incentives are clean.

01

Transparent math, no black boxes.

Every calculation is paired with the formula and assumption behind it. Adjust any default to match your situation and watch the result update.

02

No lender funnel. No data sale.

Your inputs stay in your browser. We don't log them, store them, or pass them to mortgage brokers — use the tools anonymously.

03

Reality-adjusted defaults.

Tax rates, insurance averages, and maintenance reserves reflect what homeowners actually pay today — not a sunny-day best case.

04

Free, with no premium tier.

Every calculator and every insight on the site is free to use. There is no paywall that unlocks "the real numbers" later on.

The Toolkit

Built and building.

A growing set of tools for real housing decisions. Live tools are open today; the rest are in active development.

True Monthly Cost Calculator

The full PITI + HOA + maintenance picture for any home.

LiveOpen

Rent vs Buy Calculator

Total cost over your real time horizon, not a 30-year hypothetical.

LiveOpen

Affordability Calculator

Comfort band + House Poor Risk Score, not just max DTI.

LiveOpen

Listing Reality Check

Strip the optimism off a listing and see the true cost.

LiveOpen

FHA vs Conventional

True cost over your hold period — MIP, PMI, rate, all in.

LiveOpen

House Poor Risk Score

Diagnostic affordability score — surfaces what would break first.

LiveOpen
How We Operate

Transparency, on the record.

Here is how OwningCost handles your data, your money, and your decisions.

Your inputs stay in your browser.

Calculator values never leave your device. We don't log them or associate them with you. Refresh the page and they're gone — that's the design.

No lender bidding, ever.

We never sell your email to a mortgage broker or pass your scenario to a "partner" for a rate quote. OwningCost takes no referral fees from lenders.

Estimates are updated regularly.

Rate and tax defaults are refreshed against public data sources on a recurring cadence. Each estimate is timestamped so you can see how fresh it is.

We show our work.

Every assumption is visible and editable. The math behind each line item is shown in plain language — no proprietary "score," no hidden formula.

FAQ

Things people ask us.

What does OwningCost actually do?
OwningCost is a housing-cost intelligence platform. It shows the full monthly cost of housing, compares renting versus buying, models financing across FHA, VA, USDA, and conventional, and produces ZIP-level local cost intelligence — all without selling your data or routing you to a lender.
Is OwningCost a lender or a broker?
No. OwningCost is independent. We do not originate loans, sell your information, or pass you to a specific lender. Our goal is clarity.
What loan types do you cover?
Conventional, FHA, VA, USDA, jumbo, fixed-rate, and adjustable-rate mortgages. Each is modeled with its actual cost shape — upfront fees, mortgage insurance, rate differences — so comparisons are honest, not generic.
How is this different from a standard mortgage calculator?
A mortgage calculator shows principal and interest. OwningCost shows what you will actually pay each month once property taxes, insurance, HOA, PMI, maintenance, and closing costs are included — plus how that compares to renting and how it varies by ZIP.
What does "ZIP-aware" mean?
Every calculator pulls from a ZIP-level data layer covering tax rates, insurance averages, median rents and prices, and local risk factors. So a $425K home in 75034 (Frisco, TX) will model differently from a $425K home in 30303 (Atlanta, GA) — because the underlying cost shape is genuinely different.
Do the calculators work without signing up?
Yes. Every calculator is free with no account required. The math is transparent and the inputs stay in your browser.
How accurate are the estimates?
Estimates use current national, regional, and ZIP-level averages for rates, taxes, insurance, and maintenance. They are designed to reflect real housing costs, not a best-case scenario. For a final number, always verify with your lender, insurer, and local tax authority.
Start here

Run your real number in 60 seconds.

No email, no credit check, no lender follow-up. Just your full monthly housing cost, broken down clearly so you can decide with confidence.

Open the calculator Compare rent vs buy