# Rent vs buy tool from NYTimes
**URL:** https://forum.mustachianpost.com/t/rent-vs-buy-tool-from-nytimes/1277
**Category:** Real Estate
**Created:** [September 16, 2018, 10:50am UTC](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/t/rent-vs-buy-tool-from-nytimes/1277 "2018-09-16T10:50:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@mbaluda](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/u/mbaluda)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2018, 10:50am UTC](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/t/rent-vs-buy-tool-from-nytimes/1277/1 "2018-09-16T10:50:30Z")
This tool from NY times seems to be flexible enough to be used for Switzerland as well:
> **[Is It Better to Rent or Buy? A Financial Calculator.](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/upshot/buy-rent-calculator.html)**
>
> Our calculator takes the most important costs associated with buying or renting and compares the two options.
In particular it accounts for the opportunity costs.
I do not do currency conversion and just use $ as CHF for simplicity, here are my fixed long-term params, what do you think?
mortgage rate: 1.2% (adjusted by discounting the marginal tax rate)
home price growth rate: 2%
investment return rate: 4%
inflation rate: 1%
property tax rate: 0.5%
marginal tax rate: 35%
cost of buying home: 3.5%
cost of selling: 5%
maintenance: 1%
insurance: 0.5%
renter insurance: 0.5%
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### Author:  [@Bojack](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/u/Bojack)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2018, 2:10pm UTC](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/t/rent-vs-buy-tool-from-nytimes/1277/2 "2018-09-16T14:10:44Z")
> [@mbaluda](#):
>
> home price growth rate: 2%
Actually, why would home prices grow forever? This depends on a lot of factors: land availability, salaries, population growth, building costs.
> [@mbaluda](#):
>
> investment return rate: 4%
You’re that pessimistic on returns of VT/VTI? 4% return, 1% inflation = 3% real return?
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### Author:  [@mbaluda](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/u/mbaluda)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2018, 7:04pm UTC](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/t/rent-vs-buy-tool-from-nytimes/1277/3 "2018-09-16T19:04:00Z")
If it’s just two very uncertain parameters, I could consider the positive and negative scenarios.
Do you have any suggestion about a long term growth fork for RE and VT?
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### Author:  [@Bojack](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/u/Bojack)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2018, 7:50pm UTC](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/t/rent-vs-buy-tool-from-nytimes/1277/4 "2018-09-16T19:50:57Z")
I have no idea. It’s a really nice tool, but getting all the sliders right is just really hard.
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### Author:  [@Mobius](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/u/Mobius)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2018, 9:52am UTC](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/t/rent-vs-buy-tool-from-nytimes/1277/5 "2018-09-22T09:52:34Z")
Looks nice for most countries, but afaik in Switzerland the goal is to never actually repay the loan in full, you’re mostly paying interest. Not sure how this tool would account for that.
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### Author:  [@mbaluda](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/u/mbaluda)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2018, 10:27am UTC](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/t/rent-vs-buy-tool-from-nytimes/1277/6 "2018-09-22T10:27:28Z")
I don’t think that is a big difference actually,
You can set the duration to 40y which is long enough, or have a shorter duration and see the situation after the first loan is over