Every honest housing-cost calculator we've built.
Calculator-first, transparent math. Twenty-five tools covering buying, renting, owning, and financing — all running locally in your browser, all with the formulas exposed.
Defaults reviewed May 2026 · Math runs in your browser · No signup, no email
The four anchor tools.
Four of the twenty-eight calculators serve as the platform's anchor tools — the ones we recommend running first because most decisions touch at least one of them. Each is fully live, with every formula exposed and every default editable.
True Monthly Cost
PITI plus HOA, PMI, and a maintenance reserve — the complete monthly figure for any specific home, with every line item exposed and adjustable.
Open SignatureAffordability + House Poor Risk
Three honest price tiers — Conservative, Comfortable, Stretch — plus a diagnostic risk score that surfaces what would break first if anything changed.
Open SignatureBuy vs. Invest
Compare buying a home against renting equivalent and investing the difference — over your real hold horizon, including opportunity cost, closing costs, taxes, maintenance, and selling fees.
Open SignatureRent vs. Buy
Total cost over your real time horizon, not a 30-year hypothetical. Appreciation, opportunity cost on down payment, closing and selling costs included. Returns a break-even year.
OpenFor the buying decision.
Tools for the pre-purchase decisions — rent-vs-buy, timing, scenario comparison, the closing-day cash picture, and listing-by-listing math.
Rent vs Buy
Compare total cost over your real time horizon. Includes appreciation, opportunity cost on your down payment, closing costs, and selling costs. Returns a break-even year.
Open LiveCash to Close
Down payment plus closing costs minus seller credits. The exact number you'll need to wire on closing day.
Open LiveBuy vs Invest
Compare buying a home against renting and investing the difference. Net position over your hold period — equity vs. portfolio.
Open LiveBuy Now vs Wait
Run the same home now vs 12 months from now under your assumptions for prices, rates, and rent inflation. See which path costs less.
Open LiveClosing Cost Estimator
Title, escrow, appraisal, lender fees, prepaid taxes and insurance — get a realistic closing-cost figure for your purchase.
Open NewIncome Required
The reverse of affordability. Enter the home you want; see the annual income required at three honest qualifying tiers — Conservative, Typical, and Stretch.
Open LiveTrue First-Year Cost
The complete year-one cash picture — down payment, closing, move-in, setup, and 12 months of carrying cost. What you'll actually spend the first year.
Open LiveLease Renewal vs Move
Compare renewing your current lease against moving to a different rental. Total cost over your horizon — including movers, deposits, fees, rent growth, and utility setup.
Open LiveProperty Type Comparison
Same price, three property types — condo vs townhouse vs single-family. HOA, maintenance, insurance, and utility differences side-by-side over your hold period.
OpenAfter you buy.
Tools for the ownership stage — selling decisions, exit costs, and the mortgage paydown math that compounds over the years you hold.
PMI Calculator
Enter loan, down payment, and credit. Get a PMI estimate, the month it drops off based on amortization, and the total cost over the loan.
Open LiveStay vs Sell Break-Even
If you sold within three years, it would often cost more than staying. The break-even calculator shows exactly when selling pays off.
Open LiveHome Exit Cost
What selling actually costs — agent commissions, transfer taxes, concessions, repairs, staging, and the mortgage payoff. See your real net proceeds.
Open LiveEarly Payoff
Extra payments, biweekly, lump-sum scenarios. Side-by-side baseline vs. accelerated — payoff date and total interest saved.
Open NewExtra Payment vs. Biweekly
The three payoff strategies — monthly extra, annual lump, biweekly — modeled side-by-side at the same annual dollar amount. Pick the one that fits.
OpenFor the loan decisions.
Loan-program comparison, refinance math, and the mortgage utilities buyers reach for at Loan Estimate time. Pairs directly with the lender flagship guide.
FHA vs Conventional
Side-by-side over your real hold period. Includes upfront FHA MIP, monthly MIP duration, and Conventional PMI removal at 78% LTV.
Open LiveDown Payment Strategy
5%, 10%, 15%, 20% — see what each level does to your monthly cost, PMI duration, and total interest paid over your hold period.
Open LiveARM vs Fixed
Model a 5/1, 7/1, or 10/1 ARM against a 30-year fixed. Compare monthly cost during the fixed period and worst-case after the reset.
Open LiveRefinance vs Keep
Compare refinancing your current mortgage against keeping it. Break-even month, monthly savings, and total savings or loss over your hold period.
Open NewHELOC vs. Cash-Out Refi
Two ways to extract home equity, modeled side-by-side. The decision usually hinges on your existing first-mortgage rate, not the equity option itself.
Open LiveVA vs Conventional
If you qualify for VA, see what the funding fee, no-PMI structure, and zero down requirement actually buy you over your hold period.
Open LiveAmortization Schedule
Year-by-year and month-by-month payment breakdown. See exactly how each payment splits and where the principal-vs-interest crossover happens.
Open LivePoints vs. No Points
Should you pay discount points to lower the rate? Break-even month, total savings over your hold, clear verdict.
OpenWhat happens if things go differently.
Tools that pressure-test your budget, your rate exposure, and your home-value assumptions. The Risk hub frames what the numbers mean; these tools surface them for your specific scenario.
Payment Shock
See how your housing budget changes when rates move, your ARM resets, or your insurance jumps. Stress-test your monthly payment.
Open NewStress Test Your Scenario
Same purchase, four appreciation paths — optimistic, flat, soft, correction. Net proceeds, ROI, color-coded verdict on resilience.
Open LiveHouse Poor Risk Score
A standalone version of the risk score — quick read on reserves, rate exposure, hidden cost share, and stress DTI.
OpenCalculators that don't sell you something.
Most online mortgage calculators belong to a lender, a real-estate brokerage, or a lead-generation network. The number they show you is calibrated to make a home feel reachable so you'll fill out a contact form.
OwningCost calculators don't capture leads. They run in your browser. The full math is visible under every output — formulas, default rates, and the exact set of assumptions used. You can change every assumption and see what happens.
What "complete monthly cost" actually means
The mortgage payment most calculators show you covers principal and interest, sometimes property tax, sometimes a token insurance number. That's typically 60–70% of what a homeowner actually pays each month. The rest — HOA, PMI when applicable, maintenance reserve, and post-purchase tax reassessment — is real money that you'll spend whether the calculator shows it or not.
Every tool here surfaces every line item. Adjust them, hide them, or zero them out. The point is to see the real number.
Common questions about the calculators.
What makes these calculators different from a standard mortgage calculator?
Are the calculators free? Do I need to sign up?
Do the calculators save my information?
Which calculator should I start with?
How accurate are the estimates?
Are these calculators built by a lender?
Can I use these for renting decisions, not just buying?
Which calculator is best for comparing scenarios?
Where calculators fit into the bigger decision.
Calculators answer specific questions. The hubs below put those numbers inside the larger decision they belong to.
Buying
What goes into a real housing budget — credit, down payment, closing costs, the stuff lenders don't volunteer.
Open HubFinancing
Loan-program comparisons, rate environment context, and the cost trade-offs the headline rate hides.
Open HubOwning
What happens after the keys — maintenance reserves, tax reassessment, insurance, the recurring costs.
Open HubLearn
Thirty long-form guides that document the math the calculators run — read first if a result surprises you.
OpenNew to OwningCost? Run the True Monthly Cost calculator.
It's the foundation tool — everything else builds on it. Five inputs, the complete monthly figure, every assumption visible.