"Can we become homeowners?"

Not only will this calculator calculate the monthly payment amount for a given mortgage, it can also help you determine what price home you can afford or calculate the down payment percentage. Or if you provide a house price and down payment percentage, the calculator will calculate the mortgage amount that is required. The calculator can also consider loan points, property taxes, hazard insurance and private mortgage insurance (PMI). It will also create an amortization schedule and useful charts.

Using This Calculator

• "Price of Real Estate": Enter the price of the real estate you are considering.
• "Down Payment Pct?": Enter the percentage down payment required by the lender.
• "Amount of Loan?": This will be automatically calculated from the "Price of Real Estate" and "Down Payment Pct" fields.
  • If you enter zero for the down payment, you will need to enter the same number here as you did in "Price of Real Estate".
• "Monthly Payments?": How long you want to take to repay the loan.
  • Some common values are:
    • 180 = 15 years
    • 300 = 25 years
    • 360 = 30 years.
• "Annual Interest Rate?": Enter what you estimate your APR will be or the loan.
  • This value will vary based on current rates and your credit worthiness, etc. So adjusting this number will allow you to see the effect of different rates on your payments and total costs.
• "Points?": Enter the number of points for this mortgage.
  • Points are fees paid directly to the lender at the time of closing in exchange for a reduced interest rate. One point generally costs one percent of your mortgage amount.
• "Annual Property Taxes?": Estimate the amount of taxes you will be required to pay each year.
  • Tax payments, home owner's insurance and mortgage insurance payments are all generally added to your monthly mortgage payments and held in escrow until those payments are due.
• "Annual Insurance?": Enter the estimated amount of your homeowner's insurance premium.
  • Tax payments, home owner's insurance and mortgage insurance payments are all generally added to your monthly mortgage payments and held in escrow until those payments are due.
• "Mortgage Insurance (PMI)?": Enter the estimated amount of any required mortgage insurance annual premium.
  • Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) is insurance to protect the lender, not you the consumer. It is required by some lenders under some circumstances. You should carefully weigh your options before deciding whether a mortgage with or without PMI is right for you. 
• "Payment Method?": When you want to make your monthly payments.
  • Making payments at the beginning of each statement period can reduce the amount of interest you pay over the life of the loan. Adjusting this setting will allow you to see how much of a difference it can make.
• Press the "Calc" button and the remaining fields will be calculated.
• Press the "Schedule" button to see a date-based schedule of payments with information about how much of each payment gets applied to principal and interest among other information.
• Press the "Charts" button to see informational charts based on the current calculations.