How Stay works

Two halves. The first is arithmetic and takes one field. The second is a conversation, and it is the one people skip.

1

Say where you are looking

The only thing needed to start. Stay fills in that metro’s property tax rate, its typical insurance and the transfer taxes nobody mentions until closing, and a running answer appears at the bottom of the screen.

2

Make the numbers yours

Six fields decide most of it — the price, the deposit, the rate you would actually be offered, the rent you are comparing against, your income and how long you expect to stay. Nineteen more sit underneath. Change any of them and the running answer moves as you type.

3

Spend twenty points each

Each person spreads twenty points across nine priorities, five maximum on any one. You will run out before you reach the end — that is the entire exercise. Asked flat out, everyone wants everything; scarcity is what makes a preference legible.

Twenty points, seven still unspent. Fill it in privately, hand the device over, and nothing is revealed until you are both done.

4

Leave with the whole thing on one page

The breakeven, every monthly cost behind it, what a lender would allow, where the two of you agree and the one thing worth settling before you start touring — printable, or saved as a PDF to hand to an agent. It is made by your own machine and nothing is sent anywhere.
Stay
NO ACCOUNT · NOTHING SAVED

How long would you have to stay?

Buying beats renting eventually. Tell us one thing and we’ll tell you when.

The metro is the only thing we need to start — it sets eight downstream numbers. The row above sets how long you expect to stay, which decides the answer more than anything else on this page.

One thing to know before you start. The third step asks both of you to spend twenty points each, taking turns on this device, without seeing what the other chose. It takes a couple of minutes and it is the part people find most useful — so it is worth doing when you are actually together.

Make these yours Everything starts at the metro average and all of it is editable. The six below move the answer most; nineteen more sit underneath. Change anything and the figure at the bottom of the screen moves as you type. Make them mineFold these away

The six that decide it

Everything else has a sensible starting value. These are the ones worth arguing about — each one moves the figure at the bottom of the screen as you type.

$
%
%
$/mo
$/yr
years
Be honest rather than aspirational. This is the input that decides the answer.
Everything elseNineteen more — the rest of the buying costs, and the long-run assumptions underneath them all.Show themHide them

Where, and who

Who is buying, and what else you already owe.

$/mo
Car, student loans, minimum card payments. Used for the affordability ceiling only.

If you rent

The two rental costs that are not the rent itself.

$/mo
%

If you buy

Tax, insurance, maintenance and HOA are where the surprise lives. They do not amortise away, they grow every year, and none of them appear in a monthly-payment calculator.

years
% /yr
$/yr
$/mo
Zero for most single-family. Condos routinely run $400–900 and rise faster than inflation.
% of value /yr
The roof, the water heater, the tree. 1% is the standard rule; older houses run higher.
% of price
Lender fees, title, escrow, appraisal, inspection. Transfer tax is added separately below.
% of price
% of price
Agent commissions plus seller-side fees. This is the single most-forgotten number in rent-versus-buy.
% of price

The assumptions you are making anyway

Every rent-versus-buy answer rests on these four, and no calculator that hides them is being straight with you. Move them and watch the breakeven move.

%
Long-run US average is close to inflation. Recent decades are not the long run.
%
The renter invests the down payment and any monthly savings. Raising this favours renting.
%
Grows insurance and HOA dues.
% of loan /yr
Charged below 20% down, and it drops off automatically at 78% of the original price.
%
%

What are you two actually looking for?

Twenty points each, five maximum on any one thing. You will run out — that is the whole exercise. Asked flat out everyone wants everything; scarcity is what makes a preference legible, and what you spend on is what you actually mean.

One person fills this in, hands the device over, and the second person fills it in without seeing the first. Nothing is revealed until both are done. Nothing leaves your browser.

Person 1 · answering now Person 2 · not yet 20 of 20 points left

Take it with you

Everything you have worked out, on one page you can print, save as a PDF, or hand to an agent. It still never leaves this browser — the file is made by your own machine.

Opens your print dialog. Choose Save as PDF as the destination.

What to do with this

Take it to a lender and ask what rate you would actually be offered, then come back and change that one number — it moves the answer more than anything else here. Nothing was sent anywhere, so it is yours to redo as often as you like.