How to use this calculator
Enter your current rent, expected annual rent increases, the price of a home you’d consider, your down payment percentage, current rate, the years you actually plan to stay, and assumptions for tax+insurance and home appreciation. The calculator runs both scenarios month-by-month and tells you which one wins.
The most important input is years you’ll stay. Buying almost always loses to renting in the first 1-3 years (closing costs eat the early equity). Buying typically wins around year 5-7 in East Texas, depending on rate and price. If you’re moving in two years, rent. If you’re staying ten, buy.
Frequently asked questions
What’s a realistic appreciation rate for East Texas?
East Texas long-run home appreciation runs 3-4% annually. Tyler, Lindale, and Bullard have seen 5-7% in 2021-2024 due to in-migration from DFW and Houston, but normalizing back to the long-run average is the safer planning assumption. The calculator defaults to 3.5%.
What about renting being “throwing money away”?
It’s not, when the math is honest. Rent buys you flexibility, no maintenance burden, and zero exposure to a market downturn. Owning carries closing costs, maintenance (~1% of home value/year), property taxes, insurance, and selling costs that eat 6-8% of your sale price. The calculator captures all of these. Buying wins when you stay long enough for the loan paydown plus appreciation to overcome those frictions.
Should I count the tax deduction?
The mortgage interest deduction is real but matters less than it used to. The 2017 tax-law standard deduction ($30,000 married filing jointly in 2025) means most homeowners no longer itemize. If you’re in a high tax bracket and have a large mortgage, run the numbers with your CPA - for most East Texas buyers it doesn’t change the buy-vs-rent verdict.
What if rates drop after I buy?
Refinance. Refinancing typically costs $3,000-$5,000 in closing fees, and pays off when rates drop 0.75% or more. If you’re worried about high current rates, the playbook is: buy when you find the right house, refinance when rates fall. “Marry the house, date the rate” is the agent saying - and it’s mostly accurate.
Why does the calculator say rent wins for short timeframes?
Two reasons. First, closing costs (~2.5% of price) are paid up front and aren’t recovered until you build equity past them. Second, in the first few years of a 30-year mortgage, almost all your payment is interest - so you’re not building equity, you’re effectively paying rent to the bank. Both effects swing in your favor over time, but it takes 5-7 years for them to overtake the rent-flexibility advantage.
What about lifestyle factors?
The calculator doesn’t price in: the freedom to paint your own walls, the joy of a yard for kids and dogs, the burden of replacing a water heater on a holiday weekend, or the stress of an unexpected landlord notice. Money math is one input. Decide what matters for your life, then use the calculator to make sure the math doesn’t break the lifestyle decision.