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Manhattan Rent vs Buy Calculator

Manhattan rent-vs-buy math has its own moving parts: the mansion tax cliff at $1M, $2M, $3M, $5M+; mortgage recording tax on condos; co-op flip taxes; transfer taxes at sale; capital gains with the primary-residence exclusion; and the SALT cap interaction with New York’s already-substantial state and city income tax. This calculator runs the full local math for your specific apartment.

Address and apartment

Pick the building and the property type sets itself. Add the apartment for a Roebling estimate of its value.

Purchase price

Down payment

Mortgage rate

Property type

Monthly common charges

Monthly property tax

≈ $15,000/year

Equivalent monthly rent

What it would cost to rent a comparable apartment in the same building or neighborhood.

Time horizon

years

Stock market return

What the down payment + closing costs would earn if invested in the market instead (S&P 500 long-run ~7–10%). Not the apartment’s appreciation — that’s in advanced inputs.

+ Show advanced inputs

Annual rent growth

Annual home appreciation

How much the apartment itself gains in value per year (long-run Manhattan average ~2–3%).

Marginal tax rate

Attorney fee

Annual home insurance

Primary residence

Qualifies for $500K married cap-gains exclusion at sale

Filing status

Over 7 years

Renting comes out ahead by $171,440

Buying first comes out ahead in year 17 and stays ahead through year 30.

If you buy

Paid along the way (already reflected in who invests what; not subtracted again)

Down payment

$375,000

Closing costs

Mansion tax, MRT (condo), title, attorney

$51,406

Cumulative housing cost over 7y

P&I + maint + tax + ins, less mortgage interest deduction

$757,088

Selling at year 7

Home value at year 7

$1,723,029

Selling costs

Broker, transfer taxes, flip tax (co-op), attorney

-$141,327

Capital-gains tax at sale

-$0

Remaining mortgage

-$1,017,183

Invested savings at year 7

Months when owning cost less than renting, invested at 6%

Tax on investment gains

-$0

Wealth at year 7

$564,519

If you rent

Paid along the way (not subtracted again)

Cumulative rent over 7y

Rent plus renters insurance; rent grows at your specified rate annually

$617,747

Investment balance at year 7

Down + closing kept invested at 6% (stock market), plus months when renting cost less

$825,613

Tax on investment gains

-$89,654

Wealth at year 7

$735,959

The full breakdown

See every line item.

Both scenarios start with the same $426,406 and the same monthly budget; each month, whichever option costs less invests the difference at 6%. Wealth is compared at year 7, after selling the home and the investments at that point; gains on the home and on both portfolios are taxed once, at sale, at an assumed ~34.5% combined rate (higher incomes and larger gains can face more; no tax on dividends along the way). Assumes the household itemizes; the home-sale exclusion applies from year 2. Manhattan-specific math: full mansion tax, mortgage recording tax (condos), transfer taxes at sale, co-op flip tax, capital gains tax with primary residence exclusion. Mortgage interest deductible on first $750K of debt (made permanent by OBBBA 2025). SALT cap $40,400 in 2026, indexed 1% a year through 2029 — but assumed fully consumed by NY State + NYC income tax for typical luxury buyers, so property tax effectively non-deductible.

What the math accounts for

Buying. Down payment + mansion tax + mortgage recording tax (condos) + title insurance (condos) + attorney. Monthly: P&I, maintenance/CC, property tax, insurance — less mortgage interest deduction (on up to $750K of the balance outstanding; assumes you itemize).
Selling at horizon. 6% broker, NYC + NY State transfer taxes, co-op flip tax, attorney, capital gains tax (an assumed federal 20% + NIIT 3.8% + NY State 6.85% + NYC 3.876%, less the primary-residence exclusion from year 2). The same assumed rate applies to gains on both households’ investments.
Renting. Rent rises annually. Down payment + closing kept invested at your specified ROI. Both households have the same monthly budget: whichever option costs less in a given month invests the difference.

Manhattan-specific tax rules

Mansion tax cliff. 1% at $1M, stepping up to 3.9% above $25M. Each threshold meaningfully shifts the buy-side closing math.
Condo mortgage recording tax. 1.8–1.925% of the loan amount on condos. Not applicable to co-ops, which transfer shares rather than fee interest.
Co-op flip tax. Typically 1–3% of the sale price, paid at closing on the way out.
SALT cap. OBBBA raised the SALT cap from $10K to $40,000 for 2025 and $40,400 for 2026, rising 1% a year through 2029, then reverting to $10K in 2030. The cap is reduced by 30% of MAGI above $505,000 (2026; $500,000 in 2025), but not below $10K, so it reaches the $10K floor at about $606,000 of MAGI. Married filing separately: half of each amount. For most Manhattan luxury buyers, NY State and NYC income tax alone consume the entire cap before any property tax deduction can be applied — so property tax is effectively non-deductible at the federal level. The calculator models this directly.
Mortgage interest cap. Deductible on the first $750K of mortgage debt — made permanent by OBBBA in 2025 (was scheduled to revert to $1M, now stays at $750K indefinitely).

What the answer means

Break-even year. The first year in which the owner’s wealth after a sale reaches the renter’s wealth (the investment balance after tax on its gains), and whether it stays ahead through year 30.
No single Manhattan break-even. It moves with the rent you would actually pay, the price, the financing, appreciation and the return on invested cash. Test a range of assumptions rather than relying on a typical year.
Wealth. What each household holds at the horizon: for the owner, sale proceeds after selling costs, capital-gains tax and the mortgage, plus any invested savings; for the renter, the investment balance. Gains on the home and on both portfolios are taxed once, at sale, at an assumed ~34.5% (20% federal bracket, 3.8% NIIT, 6.85% NY State, NYC); higher incomes and larger gains can face more, and no tax on dividends is charged along the way. Both start with the same capital and the same monthly budget, so housing costs are counted once.

Looking at a specific apartment?

The break-even number is the starting point. The number that actually matters is whether the building’s maintenance trend, flip tax, and board culture line up with your time horizon. A 30-minute call gets you that read.

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Leaving the city?

The same research for the markets NYC owners most often weigh against an apartment: town guides, closing costs and the monthly cost of owning a house.

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