Florida Rent vs. Buy Calculator

Almost every family I sit down with asks some version of the same question: are we throwing money away on rent, or would buying actually put us ahead? I built this tool so you can see your own breakeven year with your own numbers, not a stranger's rule of thumb. — Amanda Kinard, licensed Florida Realtor (SL3383199)

What I want you to see before you decide

I've sat with enough families to know the mistake most people make: comparing this month's rent to this month's mortgage payment and calling it a day. That's not the whole picture, and it's not fair to your decision. A real comparison has to account for:

• What it costs to get in the door — your down payment plus roughly 2% in buyer-side closing costs (loan origination, title, inspection, recording).
• What renters don't pay but owners do — property taxes, homeowner's insurance (higher here than almost anywhere else in the country), maintenance, HOA dues if the community has one, and PMI if you're under 20% down.
• What your down payment could have earned elsewhere — if that money weren't tied up in a house, you could have invested it. A lot of calculators skip this entirely. I don't think it's honest to leave it out.
• The equity you build as you pay down the loan, which works in your favor over time.
• Appreciation — usually a plus, though it isn't guaranteed every single year.
• What it costs to sell later — roughly 6% in commissions plus another 1% or so for repairs, title, and other costs, since you only actually realize your gain net of what it costs to sell.
• Rising rent — a locked-in mortgage payment looks better every year your rent goes up.

How the math actually works underneath this tool

For every year in your projection window, the calculator adds up your cumulative renting cost — your monthly rent times twelve, compounding at the inflation rate you enter — plus what you would have earned investing your down payment instead. On the buying side, it totals your down payment, closing costs, mortgage payments, property tax, insurance, and maintenance, then subtracts the equity you've built and the appreciation you've earned, net of what it would cost to sell. Your breakeven year is simply the first year the buying total (net of equity and appreciation) drops below the renting total.

What this looks like for families around here

For a lot of the families I work with in Baker, Duval, Clay, and Nassau Counties, buying tends to make sense once you're planning to stay five to seven years — with current mortgage rates in the 6.5%–7% range, local price-to-rent ratios generally landing in the 16–22 range, rent inflation in the 3%–5% range, and a conservative 3% appreciation assumption. None of those are guarantees for your specific situation, which is exactly why I want you to run your own numbers above rather than borrow someone else's rule of thumb.

Buying is harder to justify on the math alone if you might move again within two or three years, or if you're looking at a condo-heavy community where HOA costs are eating into the ownership math. It tends to look better quickly in the suburban stretches of Northeast Florida — Jacksonville, St. Johns, Clay, Nassau, and Baker — where rent has often climbed faster than home prices.

What no calculator can tell you

A few things matter that never fit cleanly into a spreadsheet, and I'd be doing you a disservice not to say so plainly:

• Tax benefits. Mortgage interest and property taxes are itemized deductions, though with today's higher standard deduction, fewer buyers itemize than they used to. Ask your CPA how it applies to your household specifically.
• Florida's Homestead Exemption and Save Our Homes cap. Over ten-plus years, that 3% assessment cap can save real money compared to a renter whose rent has no such ceiling. See the Florida Homestead Exemption guide for how it works.
• What a home means to your family beyond the math. Being able to renovate, plant a garden, let your kids paint their own room, and stay as long as you want is worth something real — it just isn't something I can put in a spreadsheet cell.
• Risk is different, not just bigger or smaller. Buying concentrates your money in one house in one place. Renting keeps you flexible. Neither is wrong — it depends on your season of life.

Questions families ask me about this tool