Mortgage Calculator

A mortgage payment is usually more than just principal and interest — property tax, home insurance, and HOA dues (if any) typically get bundled into the same monthly bill. This calculator estimates all four together from your home price, down payment, interest rate, and loan term, so the number you see is closer to what you'd actually pay each month.

Principal & interest use the same fixed-rate amortization math as any installment loan: each payment is split between interest and principal, with the interest portion shrinking and the principal portion growing over the term. Property tax and home insurance are entered as annual figures and divided by twelve; HOA dues are entered directly as a monthly amount. All three are optional and default to zero if you leave them blank.

This is an estimate, not a loan offer or financial advice. It doesn't include private mortgage insurance (PMI), closing costs, or other lender fees, and it assumes a fixed rate for the entire term. Your actual rate and terms depend on factors like credit score, loan type, and lender policy — use this as a starting point for comparing scenarios, not a guaranteed figure.

A worked example

Say you're buying a $400,000 home with a $40,000 (10%) down payment, a 6.5% interest rate, and a 30-year term. The loan principal is $400,000 − $40,000 = $360,000. Plugging that into the amortization formula gives a monthly principal & interest payment of $2,275.44. Add $6,000 a year in property tax and $1,500 a year in home insurance (÷12 = $625/month combined, with no HOA in this example), and the total estimated monthly payment comes to $2,900.44 — over $600 more than principal & interest alone.

A common misconception: what this payment doesn't include

A 10% down payment like the one above falls short of the 20% threshold conventional lenders use, so this scenario would typically also require private mortgage insurance (PMI) — a real added monthly cost this calculator deliberately doesn't estimate, since PMI rates vary by lender, credit score, and loan type with no single standard figure to apply. The CFPB is explicit that PMI protects the lender, not the borrower — it exists to cover the lender's loss if you stop making payments, and it doesn't protect you from foreclosure if that happens. Per the same CFPB guidance, putting 20% or more down on a conventional loan removes the PMI requirement entirely; in the example above, an $80,000 (20%) down payment instead of $40,000 would drop the principal to $320,000 and the principal & interest payment to $2,022.62 — lower not just because of the smaller loan, but also because PMI would no longer apply.

When the standard payment estimate doesn't fit

This calculator assumes a fixed rate for the full term, the standard structure for most conventional mortgages — it doesn't model an adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM), where the rate (and payment) can change after an initial fixed period, sometimes substantially. It also doesn't apply any affordability guideline: a commonly cited lending benchmark, the 28/36 rule, suggests keeping total housing costs at or below 28% of gross monthly income and total debt payments at or below 36%, though actual lender requirements vary by loan program and can differ from this general guideline. This tool calculates whatever payment your inputs produce regardless of where that lands relative to your income, so a technically correct payment estimate can still be one a lender — or your own budget — wouldn't consider affordable.

How to use this estimate

Use the total monthly payment as a planning figure for comparing home prices, down payment sizes, and rates against each other — not as a final number to budget around before getting a real loan estimate. Since PMI, closing costs, and lender fees aren't included, treat this calculator's output as a floor on your likely payment rather than a ceiling, especially at a down payment below 20%. A formal loan estimate from an actual lender, required by law to disclose the APR and all fees, is the number to rely on before making a purchase decision.

Monthly payment vs. total interest paid

The monthly payment answers what you'll owe each month; total interest answers what the loan costs over its full life. In the 30-year, $360,000 example above, total interest paid over the full term comes to roughly $459,158 — more than the original loan amount itself, a direct consequence of how much interest accrues on a large principal over three decades. A shorter term or a larger down payment both reduce that total, even when they raise or barely change the monthly payment, which is why the two numbers are worth weighing together rather than optimizing for the smaller monthly figure alone.