Bay Area homeownership cost and rent vs. buy calculator

What would owning cost me?

Estimate monthly payments and upfront cash for a Bay Area home. Use optional targets to compare cities, or enter a home price in the rent-vs-buy calculator below.

What would owning cost me? Optional · private

Enter your comfortable monthly housing spend and purchase cash. See estimated costs at each city’s median price and what exceeds your targets.

Monthly housing target ($)Cash available for purchase ($)

Purchase cash covers the down payment and buying costs. Enter what remains after keeping your emergency reserves.

Adjust mortgage, taxes, insurance & fees

These are editable examples shared across cities. Add the actual HOA and insurance quote for a particular home. Starting mortgage rate: 6.76% national 30-year benchmark, 2026-09-10; use your lender’s quote.

Down payment (%)Mortgage interest rate (%)Loan term (years)Annual property tax (% of purchase price)Home insurance per month ($)Annual maintenance (% of purchase price)HOA fees per month ($)Mortgage insurance per month ($)Buying costs (% of purchase price)

With less than 20% down, enter a mortgage-insurance quote, or 0 if your loan does not require it.

Using 20% down · 6.76% mortgage · 1.2% tax · 1% upkeep · $250/mo insurance · $0/mo HOA · 2% buying fees. HOA starts at $0; check the property.

Add both targets to see the comparison. You can also explore without a budget.

Stays in memory while you navigate this tab. Refreshing clears it. Excluded from links, saved briefs, printouts and analytics.

Check a particular home or compare renting

Rent or buy · your cost scenario

What could owning cost you?

Start with a home price and rent for a comparable home. See the monthly budget, equity built through repayments, and how your assumptions change the longer-term comparison.

Use a dated local price or rent benchmark

Local benchmarks to help you start

Sale prices are for single-family homes. Rental benchmarks include all rental housing and multifamily. They describe different populations; use a comparable property’s rent for your decision.

San Carlos

UnavailableMedian sale price · unavailable

Unavailable / monthCity-wide rental benchmark · unavailable

Your assumptions

These assumptions are shared with your private map and city comparison. They stay in this tab’s memory and clear on refresh.

Home price ($)Comparable monthly rent ($)Down payment (%)Mortgage interest rate (%)Years you expect to stayAssumed yearly home-price change (%)

Starting mortgage rate: Freddie Mac’s 6.76% national 30-year average, 2026-09-10. Replace it with your lender’s quote, especially for a jumbo loan or different loan term.

Home-price change is your assumption. The starting 0% holds the price flat. It is not a prediction from the research models.

Edit taxes, fees and other assumptions

Taxes, insurance, upkeep and transaction costs start as examples. Check the actual property and your loan terms. Recurring-cost growth is an assumption, not a projection of local tax rules.

Loan term (years)Annual property tax (% of purchase price)Home insurance per month ($)Annual maintenance (% of purchase price)HOA fees per month ($)Mortgage insurance per month ($)Buying costs (% of purchase price)Selling costs (% of sale price)Assumed yearly rent increase (%)Assumed yearly increase in recurring costs (%)Alternative annual return on your cash (%)

Current cost assumptions: 1.2% property tax per year, $250 insurance per month, 1% annual upkeep, $0 HOA per month, 2% buying costs and 5% selling costs. Loan term: 30 years.

Build your comparison

Enter a home price and comparable rent, or use the local benchmarks above.

Explore the city-wide rent history

Zillow Observed Rent Index, all rental homes and multifamily, smoothed and not seasonally adjusted. Missing months remain missing. A rent index divided by a sale-price median is not a matched-property rental yield.

Rent observation month

Rental benchmarks for Jul 2026
City	Monthly rental benchmark
San Carlos	Unavailable

No comparable observations are available.

Why rents and ownership costs belong in the lab

They make the price of a home easier to interpret. They also give us a separate longer-term hypothesis to test. Your cost assumptions do not become an appreciation forecast or a weight in the forecast mixer.

Research on prices and rents Research on ownership cost Data coverage and limits

What belongs in a homeownership budget?

Walk through a full example in What does a Bay Area home cost beyond the mortgage?

Buying a condo? Check HOA reserves, insurance and special assessments before relying on the monthly fee.

Look beyond the mortgage

The calculator adds property tax, insurance, HOA dues, mortgage insurance and a maintenance allowance to principal and interest. Replace the example inputs with property-specific figures. Keep utilities, major renovations and emergency savings in your wider budget.

Separate purchase cash from monthly payments

Upfront cash here means your down payment plus modeled buying costs. Your lender’s Loan Estimate explains estimated closing costs and cash to close; deposits already paid, credits and adjustments can change that amount.

Compare renting the same kind of home

Use rent for a similar home, then vary your holding period, financing and resale assumptions. The result describes your scenario. Home-price growth starts at 0% and can be changed; it is not a forecast.

For the underlying budgeting steps, see the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s homebuying budget guide and Loan Estimate explainer.

Still choosing a place? Compare city home prices and sales history. Have specific options? Compare costs and evidence for up to three homes.