A free tool from TheHousingModel

The five-minute look

Five numbers you already know. A first answer on renting versus buying — run by the same engine as the paid app, with every assumption it had to make listed underneath.

Runs in your browser · nothing is sent anywhere · no email required

For adults planning their own household. You must be 18 or older to use it — see the Terms of Use.

Five figures

The numbers below are an example. Replace them with yours — the answer updates as you type.

Numbers it filled in for you

These are the figures a five-minute look has to supply itself. If you know one — the rate you were quoted, your town's property tax — put it in and the answer uses it. Leave any of them blank to keep the stated default.

Fill in the five figures to see a first answer.

    This is the app's own engine, not a simplified copy of it. The same calculation runs here and in the full plan builder, so a difference between them comes from the inputs and assumptions, not from two different models. This page asks for five figures and fills in the rest; the plan builder asks you.

    What it filled in for you

    Every number this answer rests on that you did not type, with where it came from. Nothing here is hidden in the code.

    What it never asked about

    Each of these can change which way the answer goes. This is the honest reason to go further, not a sales line.

      What five figures cannot tell you

      Coming out ahead is not the same as getting through it

      The answer above says which path ends richer on five numbers. The question that actually decides it — which paths show a monthly shortfall under your own figures — needs your paystub, your debts, your kids and your town. That is the app.

      Your pay and deductions, from your paycheck stubTake-home pay and the withholding and deductions already on your stub, read in your browser and never uploaded. It does not calculate your tax.
      Every month, not just the finishThe month each path is tightest, how far reserves fall, and when a path stops funding itself
      Debts, children, care and schoolLoans and cards paid down in order, childcare that starts and ends, costs that arrive on a date
      The price your figures supportThe price ceiling your household carries, rather than the one a lender will approve
      Which assumption is carrying the answerEach one moved on its own, ranked by how much it shifts the result — and told when the race is too close to call
      Childcare that starts later, and refinancingChildcare that starts in a year you name, and a refinance at a month you choose
      Saved plans you can come back toPlans, comparisons and a printable record — all kept in your browser, on your machine
      Build your plan free →
      This page tells you which way it leans. The app tells you whether your household can carry it. Building it costs nothing; the projection is $59 for twelve months.

      Send me the occasional essay

      Notes on housing and household finance, and a line when something material changes in the model. No sequence, no sharing, no upsell drip.

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