10 min read
My rent is less than a mortgage would be. Does that not settle it?
It is a fair starting point, and in month one you are often right. In much of Central Ohio, the full cost of owning is higher than rent on a similar place, especially at today's rates. Per Freddie Mac's weekly survey, August 6, 2026, the 30-year fixed averaged 6.69 percent, an eleven-month high. At that rate, every $100,000 borrowed costs roughly $645 a month in principal and interest.
So if you compare this month's rent to this month's mortgage payment, rent often wins. I will not pretend otherwise.
But housing is not a one-month decision. It plays out over years, and over years the two paths behave very differently. Rent changes on you. A fixed mortgage payment does not. Part of a mortgage payment comes back to you. None of your rent does. That is the math worth doing, so let us do it.
What does owning really cost every month?
Honest buying math starts with PITI: principal, interest, taxes, and insurance. Principal and interest are set by your loan and stay fixed. Taxes and insurance vary by county, school district, and the home itself, and they get added on top.
For scale, per the Columbus MLS, pulled August 10, 2026, covering the previous 90 days, the median Galloway closing was $335,000. Put money down and you are borrowing less than that. At roughly $645 per $100,000 borrowed, you can sketch the principal and interest yourself. Then add taxes and insurance to get the true monthly number.
Now be honest about the part most people skip: maintenance. Furnaces fail. Water heaters quit at bad times. The right habit is setting aside something every month so repairs are a plan instead of a crisis. How much depends on the age and condition of the house, and it is a real cost either way.
If HOA fees apply, count those too. When renters say owning costs more than the mortgage payment, they are right. Count all of it. That is the only version of the math worth trusting.
Okay, but what does renting really cost?
Rent has hidden costs too. They are just quieter.
The first is renewal increases. Your rent is fixed for one lease, not for life. Every renewal is a new negotiation you do not control. Over five years, most renters pay more per month at the end than at the start, sometimes much more. A fixed-rate mortgage stays flat on principal and interest for thirty years. Taxes and insurance can rise, but the core payment is locked.
The second is moving. Renters move more often, and moving costs money and time. Deposits, overlap months, trucks, days off work. It adds up in ways nobody budgets for.
The third is the big one. Every dollar of rent is gone. It buys you a place to live, which matters. But it builds nothing behind you. Your landlord's loan gets paid down every month. Yours does not exist.
Where does my payment actually go in years one to five?
This is the part almost nobody explains, so let me do it plainly. A mortgage payment splits into interest and principal. Interest is the cost of borrowing. Principal is you buying back your own house from the bank.
In the early years, most of each payment goes to interest. That is just how loan math works, and it disappoints people to hear it. But the split shifts every single month. Each payment pays off slightly more principal than the one before. The paydown starts slow and speeds up on its own, automatically.
That principal paydown is equity you own, and it happens even if home values never move an inch. It works like forced savings. Most owners never miss the money, because it is inside a payment they were making anyway. Ask a renter how much they saved over five years. Then ask an owner what they owe now versus what they borrowed. That gap is the quiet power of amortization.
Appreciation, meaning homes gaining value, is a separate force, and I will not promise you a rate. Nobody honest will. Central Ohio's shortage of homes has supported values, but the loan paydown above does not depend on that. It works in a flat market.
What hidden costs surprise people in both directions?
Both paths have surprises. Here are the ones I see most, on each side.
One note on the buying side before the list. Help with costs exists more often than people think. Per the Columbus MLS, pulled August 10, 2026, 28.6 percent of Galloway closings in the previous 90 days carried seller concessions averaging about $8,900 where disclosed. That is sellers helping buyers with costs, negotiated deal by deal, and it changes the entry math.
- Owning: closing costs when you buy, and again when you sell. Selling costs are the big one, which is why short stays hurt.
- Owning: repairs cluster. You can have two quiet years and then a rough one. The reserve fund is not optional.
- Owning: property taxes can rise after a reappraisal or a school levy. Budget with some room in it.
- Renting: renewal increases, new fees, and the cost of moving when a landlord sells or a building changes hands.
- Renting: no control. Whether you can stay, and what you pay to stay, are someone else's decisions.
- Renting: the years themselves. Five years of rent buys five years of housing and ends with a security deposit, maybe.
How long do I need to stay for buying to win?
Here is the cleanest rule of thumb I can give you: five years. If you are confident you will stay at least five years, buying usually has time to work. If you are likely to leave within two or three, renting usually wins. In between, it depends on your exact numbers.
The reason is transaction costs. Buying costs money, and selling costs more. Those costs come out of your equity when you sell. In the early years your loan paydown is still small, so selling too soon can eat everything the house did for you.
Given time, the lines cross. Rent keeps stepping up at renewals. Your principal and interest stay flat while the paydown accelerates. The five-year mark is not magic, but it is where the math usually starts leaning toward the owner.
So the most important question in rent versus buy is not about the market at all. It is about you. How long will you actually stay?
Who should honestly keep renting?
Some people should rent right now, and I would rather tell you that today than help you buy a house that hurts you. Keep renting for now if any of these are true.
Renting is not throwing money away in these cases. It is buying flexibility, and flexibility is worth paying for when your life needs it.
- You expect to move within two or three years.
- Buying would drain your savings to zero, with nothing left for repairs or surprises.
- Your income is uncertain right now, whether that is a job change, a new business, or commission that swings hard.
- The payment only fits if you stretch. A payment that owns you is not winning.
- You rent cheaply and invest the difference with real discipline. That plan works if you actually do it.
- Big life questions are unsettled, and where you will be in three years is a guess.
The math I will actually run with you
Everything above is the general shape, but no two situations are the same, and generic math has never paid anyone's mortgage. What matters is your rent, your monthly payment, your savings, and your timeline. Those numbers exist. We can find them together.
I will run your actual numbers with you personally. Your current rent next to a real payment on real houses in the areas you would actually live, with taxes and insurance included, not a lazy estimate. If the honest answer is that renting is your better move for now, that is the answer I will give you, along with what would need to change for buying to make sense.
Text me, call me, or email me, whatever is easiest. I am happy to meet in person too. It is free and there is no obligation. Worst case, you spend thirty minutes and walk away knowing your real numbers. I can live with that trade if you can.
