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Rent vs. Buy Calculator (Canadian)

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Should you rent or should you buy your home? It takes more than looking at your mortgage payment to answer this question. The first steps in buying a house are ensuring you can afford to place at least 5% of the purchase price of the home as a down payment and determining your budget. This calculator helps you weed through the fees, taxes and monthly payments to help you make a good financial decision.

Rent vs. Buy Calculator (Canadian) Definitions

Price of home
Purchase price of the home you wish to buy.
Cash on hand
Cash you have for the down payment and all closing costs. An ideal down payment is between 10 - 20% of the purchase price of the home. You may be eligible to use money from your RRSP to help fund your home purchase. Starting in February 2016, there is a required minimum down payment requirement of 5% for homes with a purchase price of $0 to $500,000. For amounts over $500,000 an additional 10% down payment is required for each dollar over $500,000. For amounts over $1,000,000 a 20% down payment is required. The down payment does not include mortgage insurance, which may be financed.
Interest rate
The current interest rate you can receive on your mortgage.
Amortization period
The number of years over which you will repay this mortgage.
Property tax amount
The annual amount you pay in property taxes.
Mortgage fees
Fees your financial institution charges for originating your mortgage.
Maintenance/Condo Fee
Monthly fee charged for your condominium and any other maintenance costs you expect to incur with the ownership of this home. Please note that condominiums are referred to as 'strata' in the Province of British Columbia.
Other closing costs
Estimate of all other closing costs for this loan. This should include filing fees, appraiser fees and any other misc. fees paid.
Total closing costs
Total up front costs to close your loan. This is the sum of the loan origination fee, the amount paid for mortgage insurance premium and other closing costs.
Mortgage amount
Total amount for this mortgage.
Monthly payment (PI)
Monthly principal and interest payment for the mortgage. This payment amount does not include maintenance or property taxes. This calculator assumes both GST and mortgage insurance are financed which increases your mortgage amount, which is then reflected in your monthly principal and interest payment.
After-tax investment return
Annual percentage return you would retain, after income tax was paid, if you invested your closing costs and down payment instead of purchasing a home.
Monthly rent payment
Amount you currently pay for rent per month.
Expected inflation rate
Inflation rate used to adjust amounts subject to annual increases. This includes rent, insurance and tax payments.
Home appreciates at
Annual appreciation you expect in the home you are purchasing.
Future sales commission
The percent of your homes selling price you expect to pay to a broker or real estate agent when you sell your home.
Is this a new home?
Many new homes have the purchase price with GST and/or HST/PST included. If this is the case for your home purchase, the checkbox to include GST should be left unchecked since the GST and/or HST/PST will be included in the purchase price.

This calculator calculates GST at 5% of a new home's purchase price minus a GST rebate. GST rebates are calculated as follows. For homes under $350,000, the rebate amounts to 36% of GST, up to a maximum rebate of $6,300. For homes between $350,000 and $450,000, the maximum rebate of $6,300 declines to zero on a proportional basis. All homes selling for more than $450,000 receive no GST rebate.

It is important to be aware that there may be additional taxes on new home purchases in the form of HST and/or PST, depending on the province where the purchase is made.

For more information, please visit: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/gp/rc4028/rc4028-e.html#P103_1775

Mortgage Insurance Required?
Check this box if you wish to calculate the amount of mortgage insurance payable. For additional information regarding mortgage insurance please read the definition below.
Mortgage Loan Insurance Premium (non-refundable)
**CMHC_DEFINITION**