Should you sell your home? Price your mortgage rate first.

Most sell-or-stay calculators ignore the most valuable thing you own: your current mortgage rate. If yours is far below today's 7.40% average, selling means giving that rate up forever. This free decider prices all three paths — keep, sell & invest, sell & buy again — with your rate counted as the asset it is.

The Stay-or-Sell Decider

Every figure is editable, and every result updates as you type. Nothing leaves your browser.

Your home & loan
Principal & interest. Auto-filled from balance, rate and years left — type over it to use the payment on your statement.
Cost of staying
Rule of thumb: about 1% of the home's value a year.
If you sold
Negotiable — this is a neutral middle figure, not a standard.
Used by the sell-and-invest path.
Deliberately conservative — a house decision shouldn't need a hot market to work.
If you bought again
Your sale proceeds become the down payment.
Freddie Mac PMMS national average, week ending October 15, 2026: 30-year 7.40%, 15-year 6.71%. Type your own quote if you have one.
The tax check
What you paid, plus purchase closing costs and major improvements.
The §121 tests for the $250,000 / $500,000 exclusion.
Your current rate, priced
Your payment now
$0
principal & interest
New payment if you buy again
$0
proceeds down, today's rate
Monthly difference
$0
the rate penalty, per month
$0
what keeping your current rate is worth over the horizon

Lowest net cost

A — Keep your home

Out of pocket
$0
Equity & appreciation back
$0
Net cost
$0
You hold at the end
$0
Lowest net cost

B — Sell & invest

Rent paid
$0
Investment growth
$0
Net cost
$0
You hold at the end
$0
Lowest net cost

C — Sell & buy again

Out of pocket
$0
Equity & appreciation back
$0
Net cost
$0
You hold at the end
$0

Estimates only, under the assumptions you set — not financial or tax advice. The sell paths use the proceeds and tax math from this site's other two calculators; appreciation and investment returns are your inputs, not predictions.

The default example, figured: a $600,000 home with $350,000 owed at 3.25% (payment $1,705.61). Selling at 5.5% commission and 1.5% closing costs leaves $208,000 before tax — and no capital-gains tax under the §121 exclusion. Buying again means a $392,000 loan at 7.40%: a payment of $2,714.13, which is $1,008.52 more every month. Keeping the 3.25% rate instead of re-borrowing the same balance at today's rate is worth about $56,700 over five years in today's dollars. Over that horizon: keeping costs about $35,500 net, sell & invest about $97,100, sell & buy again about $123,800.

The three tools

⚖

Stay-or-Sell Decider

The full comparison on its own page: three paths, every assumption visible and editable, horizon from 1 to 10 years.
💰

Net Proceeds Calculator

What you actually keep: price minus payoff, commissions, closing costs, repairs and tax — itemized as a waterfall.
📜

Capital Gains Checker

The federal tax on your sale: basis, gain, and the $250,000 / $500,000 §121 exclusion if you pass the 2-of-5-year tests.

Why your rate belongs in the decision

A mortgage at 3.25% when new loans cost 7.40% is not just a payment — it is a below-market loan nobody will sell you again. On the default example, handing it back means paying about $858 more per month for the same balance. Any honest keep-or-sell comparison has to count that, so this one leads with it. The full math is in What your low mortgage rate is actually worth.

Two more pieces decide most sales: what you actually walk away with (the net proceeds — on the standard example, $208,000 of a $600,000 price) and whether the IRS takes a cut (often $0, thanks to the §121 exclusion). All three tools run entirely in your browser — your numbers are never sent or saved.

Guides

🔑

What Your Rate Is Worth

The payment table and the three ways a low rate pays you, in plain English.
📖

The §121 Exclusion

The $250,000 / $500,000 home-sale exclusion, the 2-of-5-year tests, and basis — explained.
📋

Every Cost of Selling

Commissions, closing costs, transfer taxes, repairs, staging, moving — the full list.

Sources: today's-rate defaults are Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey national averages (week ending October 15, 2026); exclusion figures are from IRS Topic No. 701 and Publication 523. Everything here is an estimate under assumptions you control — not financial or tax advice.