Compare the same household, location and time period. A private off-campus bedroom is not directly comparable with buying an entire condo. An academic-year housing bill is not automatically a twelve-month lease. Decide exactly what each option includes before comparing totals.

Start with actual alternative rent, purchase price, down payment and a planning rate. Add taxes, insurance, association dues, mortgage insurance where applicable, maintenance, acquisition costs and selling costs. Keep food and utilities consistent if you include them outside the calculator.

Your down payment is cash you must have, but it also contributes to the equity in the home. Principal payments reduce the loan balance. A sale may return some equity after the loan payoff and selling expenses, or it may require additional cash.

This tool shows ownership cash outlay separately from estimated net cost after a hypothetical sale. It also lets you enter an alternative return on initial cash. It does not model tax benefits or reinvesting monthly differences, so treat it as a planning comparison with stated limits.

Run the model at two, three and four years. Set appreciation to zero, then test a price decline. Remove roommate income. Raise maintenance. Each change answers a specific question about how much room your family has if the plan changes.

If the rent option looks cheaper in one case and ownership in another, record the assumptions causing the difference. That is a useful discussion with Matt, not a failure of the tool.

Use the estimate to choose which facts to investigate next. Obtain the actual association dues and insurance quote. Ask about expected transaction costs. Confirm student occupancy and the intended loan structure. Send the inputs and the result together so Matt can understand how you reached your preliminary view.