Matt Biggley, REALTOR®
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Home Return Calculator

Check your ROI on your home like you do your stock portfolio.

You probably know what your investments returned last year. Your home is likely the biggest investment you own, and most people have never worked out its return. Put in what you paid, the year you bought, and what you think it would sell for. You'll see what it earned after selling costs, in dollars per year and as a yearly percentage, the same way you check your stock portfolio.

Published Updated Reviewed by Matt Biggley

When you bought

Change any number.

When you sell

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Want me to check the sale price?

Everything above depends on the sale price you entered. Send it to me and I'll compare it with what's Sold near you, and tell you honestly whether it's realistic. No visit, and no call unless you ask for one.

From your calculator

Expected sale price: $600,000

What you paid: $300,000 in 2016

Gain per year owned: $26,390

Return per year: 6.5%

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How the numbers work

Why check it like your stock portfolio

Nobody judges an investment by the total alone. A $250,000 gain sounds the same whether it took five years or twenty-five, and it isn't. Your statement shows a yearly return for that reason, and your home deserves the same check. Seeing it per year makes the number comparable: to another house, to a friend's, or to the other places your money sits.

Checking once a year, or whenever you're thinking about a move, keeps you from guessing. It's not a reason to sell. It's a way to know where you stand.

Two ways to say the percentage

The total return is the whole gain as a share of what you paid. The yearly return is compounded, like interest on savings: it's the steady rate that would turn your purchase price into what you'd keep from the sale. That's why it's lower than the total divided by the years. With the example above, the home returns 88% in total, or about 6.5% a year, not 8.8%.

Selling costs come off first, so the yearly return is the one you'd actually take home. The line underneath shows how fast the price itself grew, before those costs.

What this leaves out

This is what the house itself earned, not your full financial picture. It leaves out renovations, mortgage interest, property tax, insurance and upkeep, and the rent you didn't pay by living there. Those all matter, and they'd change the number in both directions.

For most people selling their principal residence in Canada, the gain isn't taxed, thanks to the principal residence exemption. If the home was ever rented out, used for a business, or you own more than one property, ask your accountant.

Limits

A planning estimate, not an appraisal, tax advice or financial advice. The sale price is your guess until a proper market analysis says otherwise.

Also useful: the net proceeds calculator, which takes off your mortgage to show what you'd have in hand, and a Home Equity Check for a proper range on your home.