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Just to be clear, opportunity cost and maintenance / upkeep are both modeled and incorporated in the values you see on the buy vs rent chart.

There are also several components to the decision. Even if you give greater weight to the emotional rather than empirical factors (as many do), it is still prudent to make sure you can afford your home.

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And yet, like most (all?) calculators, there is no questioning about the houses age, condition, pending/expected costs, etc. Those are things I've always needed to tack onto the calculator results to get a better answer.

Edit: Sorry, I think my message's tone should be better. I enjoyed testing the site but while looking for a home last year it would have been nicer to have more control of how these calculations were done.

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