Mortgage Payment Calculator

Example Calculation

A $400,000 home with 20% down ($80,000) leaves a $320,000 loan. At 6.5% over 30 years, principal and interest come to $2,022.62 a month. Add property tax at 1.1% of the price ($366.67 a month) and $2,400 a year of home insurance ($200 a month), and the payment is about $2,589.28.

Put only 5% down ($20,000) and the loan is $380,000. Principal and interest rise to $2,401.86, and PMI at 0.6% adds about $190.00 a month, so the payment becomes $3,158.53. That is about $569 a month more, mostly because you borrow more and pay for mortgage insurance until you have 22% equity.

How It Works

This mortgage calculator works out the part of your payment that goes to the lender, and the parts that go to taxes and insurance. Lenders call the full amount PITI: principal, interest, taxes and insurance. Many lenders collect the tax and insurance parts every month and pay the bills for you from an escrow account.

Principal and interest is a fixed amount for the life of a fixed-rate loan. It is worked out from the loan amount (price minus down payment), the interest rate and the number of months. Property tax is a percentage of the home's value that your county charges each year, so the monthly figure is one-twelfth of it. Home insurance protects the house, and lenders require it. PMI, private mortgage insurance, is added on most conventional loans when your down payment is under 20%. It protects the lender, not you, and it can be removed when your loan balance falls to 80% of the original home value (you ask) and it ends by itself at 78%.

Use the down payment box to see how much more you would pay each month with 5%, 10% or 20% down. Use the term box to compare 30 years with 15 years: a shorter loan has a higher payment but a much smaller interest bill. If you already own a home and want to pay it off sooner, use the mortgage payoff calculator with your current balance and rate.

These results are estimates. Your lender's loan estimate will show exact numbers, including closing costs, which this calculator does not include. Property tax and insurance vary a lot by state and by house, so replace the defaults with real quotes when you have them.

Formula Explained

Monthly principal and interest: M = L × r × (1 + r)n / ((1 + r)n − 1), where L is the loan, r is the monthly rate (annual rate / 12) and n is the number of payments.

Full payment: M + (home price × tax rate / 12) + (insurance / 12) + PMI + HOA. PMI is the loan times the PMI rate / 12 when the down payment is under 20%.