Enter your home price and terms to see the real monthly payment — principal, interest, taxes, insurance, PMI, and HOA — plus the full amortization schedule.
Get matched with a lender →Add extra principal payments to see how much sooner you'd pay off the loan and how much interest you'd save.
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This tool uses the standard fixed-rate amortization formula — the same one your lender uses to generate a loan estimate. Every payment is split between interest (what you owe the bank for borrowing) and principal (what actually reduces your balance). Early in the loan, most of each payment goes to interest; later, most goes to principal. That's why the balance line above curves instead of dropping in a straight line.
Lenders bundle several costs into one monthly bill, often called PITI:
Adding even a modest amount to your monthly payment goes straight to principal, which reduces the interest that accrues on every future payment. On a 30-year loan, extra payments in the first few years have an outsized effect because so little of the standard payment is going to principal at that point. The trade-off is liquidity — extra payments are hard to get back out of your home without refinancing or selling, so most planners suggest having an emergency fund in place first.
This calculator assumes a fixed rate, meaning your interest rate never changes. An adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) typically starts with a lower rate for an introductory period, then adjusts periodically based on a market index — which can raise or lower your payment later. Fixed rates offer predictability; ARMs can offer savings if you plan to move or refinance before the adjustment period begins.
Conventional loans often allow as little as 3–5% down, FHA loans allow 3.5%, and VA/USDA loans can allow 0% for eligible borrowers. Putting down less than 20% typically means paying PMI until you build enough equity.
Two things happen at once: you're financing a larger principal, and dropping below 20% down usually adds PMI — both increase the monthly total.
It's a close estimate. Your actual PMI rate, exact tax assessment, and insurance premium depend on your credit profile, location, and insurer, and can only be finalized through a real loan application.
The interest rate is the cost of borrowing the principal. APR also folds in certain lender fees and closing costs, spread over the loan term, so it's usually a slightly higher number — and the better figure to use for comparing offers.
This calculator provides estimates for planning purposes only. It is not a loan offer, pre-approval, or guarantee of financing. Actual rates, taxes, insurance premiums, and PMI vary by lender, credit profile, and location — confirm final numbers with a licensed mortgage lender.
Your monthly payment is built from four core pieces: the loan amount (home price minus your down payment), the interest rate, the loan term, and any extras you choose to add — property taxes, homeowners insurance, PMI, and HOA dues. The principal-and-interest portion is calculated using a fixed amortization formula, meaning your payment stays the same every month for the life of the loan even though the split between principal and interest shifts over time. Early in the loan, most of your payment goes toward interest; by the final years, most of it goes toward principal. Try adjusting the loan amount or interest rate above and watch how quickly the total interest paid changes — even a half-point rate difference can move the total cost by tens of thousands of dollars over 30 years.
Because interest compounds against a large balance for a long time. On a $350,000 loan, moving from a 6% rate to a 6.5% rate doesn't just add half a percent to your payment — it adds roughly $115 to your monthly payment and over $41,000 in extra interest across the full 30-year term. That's why even a modest-looking rate difference is worth taking seriously. Use the calculator above to plug in a couple of different rates and see the total cost side by side — it makes the impact concrete in a way percentages alone don't.
A 15-year mortgage carries a higher monthly payment but a meaningfully lower interest rate and a much shorter payoff timeline — you'll usually pay less than half the total interest of a 30-year loan on the same amount. A 30-year mortgage spreads the cost out, keeping your monthly payment lower and more manageable, which gives you more breathing room in your budget or more capacity to invest elsewhere. Neither is objectively "correct" — it depends on your income stability, how long you plan to stay in the home, and whether you'd rather optimize for lower monthly cash flow or lower total cost. Switch the term field above to compare both side by side using your own numbers.
More than most people expect, because extra payments go straight to principal, which reduces the balance interest is calculated on for every remaining month of the loan. Even a modest recurring extra payment — say, $100 or $200 a month — can shave years off a 30-year mortgage and save tens of thousands in interest, because you're not just paying down principal faster, you're also shrinking the interest that would have accrued on that principal for the rest of the loan. The amortization schedule above shows this directly: add an extra payment amount and compare your new payoff date and total interest against the original schedule.
Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) protects the lender — not you — in case you default on a conventional loan where your down payment is less than 20% of the home's value. It's typically calculated as a percentage of your loan amount and added to your monthly payment. The good news: PMI isn't permanent. Once your loan balance drops to 80% of the home's original value (through payments, appreciation, or both), you can usually request that it be removed, and by law it must be automatically removed once you hit 78%. If you're deciding between a smaller down payment now versus waiting to save more, running the numbers both ways above will show you exactly how much PMI adds to your monthly cost in the meantime.
Yes — both are included as adjustable fields so your monthly payment estimate reflects your full, real-world housing cost, not just principal and interest. Property taxes vary significantly by location (often a bigger factor than people expect), and insurance costs depend on your home's value, location, and coverage level. Because these vary so much by where you live, it's worth using your actual local tax rate and an insurance quote if you have one, rather than a national average, for the most accurate picture.
Your interest rate is the cost of borrowing the principal, expressed as a percentage. Your APR (Annual Percentage Rate) is broader — it wraps in the interest rate plus most lender fees and closing costs, spread across the loan term, giving you a more complete picture of the loan's true annual cost. Two loans can have the same interest rate but different APRs if one lender charges more in fees. When you're evaluating an offer, the APR is generally the more accurate number to compare loans by, even though the interest rate is what determines your actual monthly payment.
A larger down payment reduces your loan amount directly, which lowers your monthly payment, reduces total interest paid, and — if it gets you to 20% or more — eliminates PMI entirely. But a bigger down payment also means more cash tied up in the home rather than available for other goals (an emergency fund, retirement contributions, home repairs). There's no universally right answer here; it's a genuine tradeoff between monthly affordability, total cost, and liquidity. Try a few different down payment amounts above to see exactly where the breakpoints are for your situation — particularly where you cross the 20% threshold and PMI disappears.
This is normal, and it's simply how amortization works — not a sign anything is wrong. In the early years of a mortgage, most of each payment covers interest on the (still large) remaining balance, so the principal portion starts small and grows every month as the balance shrinks. By roughly the midpoint of a 30-year loan, the split flips, and the majority of each payment starts going toward principal. The full amortization schedule above shows this shift month by month, so you can see exactly when your payments start working harder for you.
A fixed rate stays the same for the entire loan term, giving you a predictable payment no matter what happens to market rates. An adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) usually starts with a lower introductory rate, then can move up or down after a set period (commonly 5, 7, or 10 years), tracking market conditions. Fixed rates suit people who value certainty or plan to stay in the home long-term; ARMs can make sense if you expect to move or refinance before the adjustable period kicks in, or if the lower initial rate meaningfully improves your near-term affordability. Since the right choice depends on rates actually being offered to you right now, it's worth comparing real quotes for both structures rather than deciding on the general concept alone.
This calculator uses the same amortization math lenders use internally, so the payment breakdown itself is accurate for the numbers you enter. What it can't know in advance are the exact rate, fees, and terms a specific lender will actually offer you — those depend on your credit profile, the property, and current market conditions at the time you apply. Think of this tool as the clearest way to understand how the pieces fit together and to stress-test different scenarios (rate changes, extra payments, different terms) before you're deep in the application process, so you walk in already knowing what a good offer should look like.