Mortgage Calculator

How to Use This Calculator

Work through the two input groups in order: Loan Details first, then Additional Costs. The summary card at the top recalculates instantly and reports your total monthly payment, total interest, total cost of the loan, and total number of payments. Below it, the payment breakdown separates principal and interest from taxes, insurance, PMI, and HOA, and a full amortization schedule shows the principal, interest, and remaining balance for every payment. Start with a realistic purchase price and rate, then tune the tax and insurance fields to your county and carrier so the total reflects what you will actually write each month.

• Home Price: The purchase price of the home you're considering. This is the starting point for your calculation.
• Down Payment: The amount of money you're paying upfront. A 20% down payment ($80,000 on a $400,000 home) eliminates PMI and gives you the best loan terms.
• Interest Rate: The annual interest rate on your mortgage. As of 2026, average rates are around 6.5-7% for a 30-year fixed conventional loan.
• Loan Term: How long you'll take to repay the loan. 30 years is most common; 15-year loans have lower rates but higher payments.
• Property Tax: Yearly property taxes, typically 1-2% of home value. Varies significantly by state and county.
• Insurance: Homeowner's insurance, required by lenders. Typically $1,000-2,500/year depending on location and coverage.
• HOA Fees (monthly): Enter $0 if the home has no homeowners association. Condos and planned communities commonly charge $100-$500 a month, and lenders count every dollar of it in your payment.
• Extra Monthly Payment: Any amount above the required payment that goes straight to principal. Even $100 a month changes both the payoff date and the total interest, and the calculator reports each change.
• One-Time Payments: Lump sums such as a bonus or tax refund applied on a specific date, useful for seeing how a single payment moves your payoff timeline.

What Is a Mortgage Payment?

A mortgage payment is the amount you send your servicer every month to stay current on a home loan. On a fixed-rate loan that amount never changes, but what sits inside it does. The principal-and-interest portion follows a strict amortization schedule: over 360 payments on a 30-year loan, each payment covers the interest that accrued on the outstanding balance that month, and whatever is left reduces the balance itself.

The split is lopsided at the start. On a $320,000 loan at 6.5%, the first month's interest alone is $1,733, so only about $290 of your $2,023 payment buys equity. By the final payment the proportions have reversed almost exactly, and nearly the whole amount reduces the balance. Across the full 30 years you repay roughly $728,100 in total, about $408,100 of which is interest — more than the amount you borrowed. That is the arithmetic behind every piece of advice about shorter terms and extra principal.

The second layer is everything the lender does not lend you but still collects: property taxes, homeowners insurance, mortgage insurance when you put down less than 20%, and HOA dues. Those amounts ride along in the same monthly bill, usually through an escrow account, and unlike principal and interest they can change once a year. A complete payment estimate therefore has two goals: show the fixed loan payment precisely, and show the parts that move. The sections below do both, and if you want the concept explained from scratch, what is a mortgage and mortgage payments explained cover the basics in plain English.

Understanding Your Payment

Your monthly mortgage payment includes six components, often abbreviated as PITI plus extras:

• Principal: The portion of payment that goes toward paying down your loan balance. This starts small and grows over time.
• Interest: The cost of borrowing money, determined by your interest rate. In early years, most of your payment goes to interest.
• Property Tax: Paid to your local government, typically yearly but collected monthly through escrow.
• Insurance: Homeowner's insurance protects your home and satisfies lender requirements.
• HOA Fees: If applicable, paid to your homeowners association for shared amenities and maintenance.
• PMI: Private Mortgage Insurance required if down payment is less than 20%. Can be removed once you reach 20% equity.

The Anatomy of Your Payment: PITI, PMI, and HOA

Lenders group the core housing cost under the acronym PITI — principal, interest, taxes, and insurance. Underwrite a loan and they will qualify you against the full PITI number, not the principal-and-interest figure a rate quote produces. Two more components commonly join it: PMI when you borrow more than 80% of the home's value, and HOA dues when the property sits in a managed community. The calculator adds all five, plus any extra payment you enter, into one total.

Take a $400,000 home bought with 10% down ($40,000), a $360,000 loan at 6.5% over 30 years, annual taxes of $4,800, and annual insurance of $1,800:

Taxes and insurance run through escrow. You pay one-twelfth of each annual bill every month, the servicer holds it, and pays the county and your carrier when the bills come due. Because both are reassessed or repriced annually, your payment can rise even when the rate and loan never move. Budget a cushion: a county that lifts assessments by 10% on a $4,800 bill adds $40 a month.

PMI is not permanent and not optional. The calculator estimates it automatically at 0.5% of the loan amount per year whenever your down payment is under 20%; real premiums range from about 0.5% to 1% depending on credit and loan-to-value, so treat the built-in figure as a floor. It drops off once you hold 20% equity — the PMI calculator estimates both the premium and the month it disappears, and what is PMI explains the cancellation rules in detail.

HOA dues count in full. They are not escrowed and not prorated: a $300 monthly HOA bill reduces how much you can borrow by roughly $47,000, because lenders treat it exactly like a $300 higher payment. Communities also levy occasional special assessments for roofs, paving, or reserves — ask what has been levied in the last five years before you fall for a unit.

How Your Mortgage Payment Is Calculated

The principal-and-interest payment comes from one formula. In words: multiply your loan amount by a rate factor built from the monthly interest rate and the total number of payments. The factor is front-loaded — it makes early payments interest-heavy by design, because interest is always charged on the full outstanding balance.

M = P × [ r × (1 + r)^n ] ÷ [ (1 + r)^n − 1 ]

where P is the loan amount, r is the annual rate divided by 12, and n is the number of monthly payments. Taxes, insurance, PMI, and HOA sit outside this formula — they are added afterward and never compound.

Worked example: $320,000 at 6.5% for 30 years

1. Loan amount. A $400,000 price minus $80,000 down leaves P = $320,000.
2. Monthly rate. r = 6.5% ÷ 12 = 0.541667% per month, or 0.00541667 as a decimal.
3. Number of payments. n = 30 × 12 = 360.
4. Growth factor. (1 + 0.00541667)^360 = 6.9918.
5. Payment. M = 320,000 × (0.00541667 × 6.9918) ÷ (6.9918 − 1) = 320,000 × 0.037874 ÷ 5.9918, which works out to $2,022.62. The calculator displays it as $2,023. (The last decimal differs slightly because step 4 is rounded for readability.)

From that result the rest follows without any further algebra. The first payment charges 6.5% ÷ 12 on $320,000, which is $1,733.33 of interest, leaving $289.29 of principal and a new balance of $319,710.71. Multiply the payment by 360 and you repay about $728,100 in total, so roughly $408,100 of it is interest. The formula also explains why term and rate matter more than people expect: doubling the loan doubles the payment exactly, but cutting the term in half does not halve it — the same $320,000 at 6.5% over 15 years costs $2,788 a month, not $4,046, because the balance amortizes twice as fast. For the month-by-month mechanics, see the amortization guide; for how the interest itself is charged, read how mortgage interest works.

Worked Example

Here's what a typical mortgage payment looks like on a $400,000 home with 20% down at 6.5% over 30 years:

• Loan Amount: $320,000
• Principal & Interest: $2,023/month
• Property Tax (1.2%): $400/month
• Insurance: $150/month
• Total Monthly Payment: $2,573/month
• Total Interest Paid: $408,108 over 30 years

Notice that you'll pay more in interest than the original loan amount. This is why paying extra toward principal or choosing a shorter term can save dramatically.

Worked Scenarios: Down Payment, Term, and Rate

The tables below change one variable at a time and hold everything else constant: a $400,000 home, a 6.5% rate, $4,800 a year in taxes, and $1,800 a year in insurance. PMI is shown at 0.5% of the loan amount per year, the same estimate the calculator uses.

Scenario 1: Down payment (30-year fixed at 6.5%)

Moving from 5% down to 20% down cuts the payment by $537 a month, removes PMI completely, and saves $76,600 of interest — because you borrowed $60,000 less. The trade-off is $60,000 more cash at the closing table. Neither row is automatically correct: the 5% row keeps $60,000 in your pocket for reserves and investments, the 20% row buys the smaller obligation. Run your own numbers through the down payment calculator before deciding.

Scenario 2: Loan term (same $320,000 at 6.5%)

The 15-year loan costs $765 more every month and saves $226,300 in interest — you would repay less in total than a 30-year borrower pays in interest alone. The 20-year splits the difference: $363 more per month, $155,500 less interest. The right question is which payment survives a bad month, not which total interest number looks smallest. The 15-year versus 30-year guide works through the decision, and the 15-year calculator shows the schedule side by side.

Scenario 3: Interest rate

Hold the loan at $320,000 over 30 years and change only the rate. At 6.0% the payment is $1,919 with about $370,700 of interest — $104 less per month and roughly $37,400 less interest than 6.5%. At 7.0% the payment is $2,129 with about $446,400 of interest — $106 more a month and $38,300 more interest. Rates move in quarter-point steps, so each 0.25% on this loan is worth about $52 a month. That is also the value of one discount point: 1% of $320,000 is $3,200 upfront, and at $52 a month it takes about 61 months — just over five years — to break even. If you expect to keep the loan past that, points pay for themselves; if you may move or refinance sooner, they do not. Compare live offers on the mortgage rates page and model points with the mortgage points calculator.

Setting the Taxes, Insurance, PMI, and HOA Inputs

Property Tax (yearly). Enter the annual bill from your county assessor or the seller's disclosure, not a guess. Property taxes commonly run 1-2% of home value a year — $4,000 to $8,000 on a $400,000 home, or $333 to $667 a month — and the spread between states is enormous. Two traps: a purchase often triggers reassessment at the new sale price, so the seller's tax bill may understate yours, and an appeal of an over-high assessment can legitimately lower the number. The property tax calculator estimates the range before you bid.

Home Insurance (yearly). Enter the annual premium your carrier quotes. The calculator defaults to $1,350; policies on a $400,000 home often land between $1,200 and $2,400, while coastal, wildfire, or hail-exposed properties can cost considerably more. Raise your deductible from $1,000 to $2,500 and the premium falls, but you absorb the first $2,500 of any claim — keep an emergency fund equal to the deductible. Get three to five quotes; identical coverage routinely differs by hundreds of dollars a year between carriers.

PMI. There is no field to fill in. Whenever your down payment is below 20%, the calculator adds private mortgage insurance automatically at 0.5% of the loan amount per year — $150 a month on a $360,000 loan. Lenders price the real premium between about 0.5% and 1%, so strong credit usually beats the estimate and weaker credit falls short of it. PMI is temporary: it comes off when you hold 20% equity, either by paydown, appreciation, or both. The PMI calculator sizes it precisely.

HOA Fees (monthly). Enter the actual monthly dues — or $0 for a detached house with no association. Condo and townhome dues commonly run $100 to $500 a month and cover shared insurance, landscaping, and reserves. Two numbers matter to a lender: the full dues count against your payment, and a $300 monthly bill reduces your borrowing power by about $47,000. Also check what percentage of dues fund reserves; associations that underfund them levy special assessments later.

Extra Payments: How Small Amounts Add Up

Type an amount into Extra Monthly Payment — or add a one-time payment on a future date — and the calculator recomputes the payoff date, total interest, and the entire amortization schedule. Extra dollars go 100% to principal, which matters more than it sounds: interest is charged on the balance, so every dollar you prepay also stops earning interest in all 359 payments after it.

Same loan as above ($320,000 at 6.5% over 30 years), one change at a time:

The biweekly row pays half the monthly payment every two weeks, which produces 13 full payments a year instead of 12 — roughly $169 of extra principal a month without ever writing a larger check. Before you commit, confirm your servicer applies extra amounts to principal automatically; some apply them to future payments instead, which earns you nothing. If you want the full menu — lump sums, recasting, rounding up — read the extra payments guide, or try scenarios in the extra payment calculator and the biweekly calculator.

Affordability Rules of Thumb: The 28/36 Rule

Two ratios do most of the work in a mortgage underwrite. The front-end ratio caps your full housing payment (PITI plus PMI and HOA) at 28% of gross monthly income. The back-end ratio caps all monthly debts together — housing, car loans, student loans, credit cards — at 36%. The lower of the two limits is the one that binds.

Take home income of $8,000 a month with $600 a month in car and student loan payments. Twenty-eight percent of $8,000 is $2,240 for housing. Thirty-six percent is $2,880 for everything, and after the $600 of existing debts that leaves $2,280 for housing. The front-end rule binds at $2,240. From that, subtract taxes and insurance of about $550 and you have $1,690 available for principal and interest. At 6.5% over 30 years, $1,690 funds a loan of about $267,000 — with 10% down, roughly a $297,000 home.

These numbers are a starting convention, not law: some government-backed programs permit higher ratios, and lenders also weigh credit, cash reserves, and income stability. If your target sits above the line, the three levers that actually move it are a smaller price, a bigger down payment, or paying off a debt — every $250 a month of debt you retire frees about $39,000 of borrowing. Check your standing first with the debt-to-income calculator, then size the payment with the affordability calculator.

Refinancing: How to Frame the Decision

Refinancing replaces your existing loan with a new one. People do it for three reasons: to lower the payment, to shorten the term, or to pull cash out. Only the first two are covered well by this page's inputs — change the rate or the term above and you have just modeled a rate-and-term refinance, minus the closing costs.

Those costs are the whole decision. Suppose you owe $300,000 at 7.0% with 30 years left: principal and interest run $1,996 a month. Refinancing to 6.0% costs $1,799 — $197 a month less. Closing costs of $6,000 divide by $197 to give a break-even of about 30 months. Stay in the house longer than two and a half years and the savings accumulate; sell or refinance again before month 30 and you paid $6,000 to save nothing. That single calculation beats any rule of thumb about how far rates must fall.

Four things to check before signing: whether a no-cost option (slightly higher rate, zero fees) beats the financed-cost version for your horizon; how many years remain on your current loan, since restarting a 30-year clock can erase rate savings even when the payment drops; whether you will keep the home long enough to clear the break-even date; and how the new payment affects your 28/36 ratios if your income has changed. Run your figures through the refinance calculator for the break-even date, and read the refinancing guide for the trade-offs in full.

Tips to Reduce Your Mortgage Payment

• Increase your down payment: More down = lower loan amount = lower payment. 20% also eliminates PMI.
• Shop for the best rate: Even 0.25% difference matters. Get quotes from at least 3-5 lenders.
• Choose a longer term: A 30-year term has lower payments than 15-year, though you'll pay more total interest.
• Buy discount points: Paying upfront to lower your rate can reduce payments if you stay long enough to break even.
• Lower your property taxes: Appeal your tax assessment if you believe your home is overvalued.
• Shop for insurance: Compare quotes from multiple insurers — rates vary significantly.
• Model tax and insurance increases: A $500 rise in your annual tax bill or insurance renewal adds $42 a month to the payment. Run that increase through the calculator before you stretch to the very top of your budget.
• Budget for the escrow cushion: Some servicers collect a two-month reserve when taxes or insurance jump, so a reassessment can cost you cash up front as well as a higher monthly payment.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Budgeting on principal and interest alone. The quoted payment on a $400,000 home with 20% down is $2,023, but taxes and insurance push the real obligation to $2,573 — 27% higher. Qualification is based on the full number, and so is your household budget.
• Skipping the HOA line. Entering $0 for a condo with $300 of dues inflates what you think you can borrow by about $47,000. Lenders count the dues in full, so your payment will too.
• Assuming PMI lasts for the life of the loan. On a conventional loan, mortgage insurance is removable at 20% equity. Borrowers who never ask keep paying for years — check what is PMI for the exact thresholds.
• Not telling your servicer to apply extra payments to principal. An unmarked extra payment can be applied to your next installment instead, which saves almost nothing. Confirm the policy in writing before the first extra dollar.
• Shopping only the headline rate. Points, fees, and lock periods change the real cost. On a $320,000 loan a quarter-point is worth about $52 a month, and a point costs $3,200 up front — compare offers on the same day through the mortgage comparison tool.
• Ignoring maintenance. Budget 1-2% of the home's value a year — $333 to $667 a month on a $400,000 house — for roof, HVAC, and appliance failures. A payment plan with no maintenance line is a plan that breaks in year three.
• Starting the house hunt before pre-approval. Without a verified budget you will tour homes you cannot finance, and an offer with no pre-approval letter loses to one that has it. Set the price range first with the affordability calculator, then shop.
• Refinancing without a break-even date. If closing costs of $6,000 buy $197 of monthly savings, you need 30 months in the home before the refinance pays for itself. Selling at month 18 leaves you about $2,450 behind: you collected $3,546 of savings against $6,000 of costs.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much of my payment goes to principal vs interest? In the early years of a 30-year mortgage, about 70-80% of your payment goes to interest. By year 20, it's roughly 50/50. In the final years, most of your payment goes to principal.

When can I remove PMI? You can request PMI removal when your loan balance reaches 80% of the original home value. Lenders must automatically cancel PMI at 78% of the original value. You can also request removal if your home appreciates to 80% of the current value.

Should I include taxes and insurance in my payment estimate? Yes. Your actual monthly housing cost includes PITI, not just principal and interest. Ignoring taxes and insurance gives an incomplete picture of affordability.