So, based on the rent thread, I made an own/rent calculator

...that actually gives you numbers for owner selling vs owner NOT selling (how much are they in the hole); gives you numbers year by year; and is relatively easy to modify - in particular, it wouldn't be hard to break down numbers for housing appreciation, inflation, taxes, etc. year by year, if you know the future in great detail, instead of having just one number for each.

Let me know if you see any issues. Feel free to copy and correct or modify, or to play with. It was originally made in excel.

It is notable that for my $2700 rent and a barely equivalent 700k house I was looking at, with 3% inflation and 5% total for both housing, rent and stock market growth; if you never move, you "break even" with the renter after 41 years. Of course, if you sell you break even very quickly, but then you have to live somewhere, so you go back to the same chart, or move to Vegas.

please excuse stupid question, but isn't it fair to say that at some point the buyer owns an asset, while the renter is still paying 25% or so on their income ?

we paid off our 25 year mortgage 10 years early by adding what we could afford to the required payment eaxh month. If one adopts this strategy early in the repayment life it makes huge savings later..

sorry if this is not addressing the core question :)

nice work!!!

Update: corrected investment income issues