How Stay works

Two halves. The first is arithmetic. The second is the conversation people skip.

1

Say where you are looking

One field. Stay fills in that metro’s property tax, its typical insurance and the transfer taxes nobody mentions until closing.

2

Make the numbers yours

Six fields decide most of it, nineteen more sit underneath, and the answer moves as you type.

3

Spend twenty points each

Twenty points each across nine priorities, five maximum on any one. You will run out — that is the exercise.

Seven still unspent. Answer privately, then hand the device over.

4

Leave with the whole thing on one page

The breakeven, the costs behind it, and the one thing worth settling before you tour. Printable, and made by your own machine.
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.

Make these yours Everything starts at the metro average and all of it is editable. Change anything and the figure at the bottom moves as you type. Make them mineFold these away

The six that decide it

The ones worth arguing about. Nineteen more sit underneath.

$
%
%
$/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.
%
%

Next is the household step. If somebody else gets a say, it asks each of you in turn on this device — so round them up, or come back later. This is saved on your machine either way.

What is everyone 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.

Fill it in, hand the device on, and the next person answers blind. Nothing is revealed until everyone is done.

How many of you are deciding?
Person 1 · answering now Nobody else yet 20 of 20 points left

Take it with you

Everything you have worked out, on one page to print or hand to an agent. The file is made by your own machine and goes nowhere.

What to do with this

Ask a lender what rate you would actually be offered, then come back and change that one number. It moves the answer more than anything else here.