Mortgage Calculator
By Baolin Gong, AFP · Founder, USFinCalc · Reviewed against primary sources (IRS, SSA, state revenue authorities).
A mortgage payment is made up of four parts, known as PITI: principal, interest, taxes, and insurance. Lenders quote only principal and interest, but property taxes, homeowners insurance, PMI (if your down payment is under 20%), and any HOA dues are part of what you actually pay each month. This calculator adds all of them to show your true monthly payment.
See your true monthly payment — full PITI with property taxes, home insurance, PMI, and HOA dues. Not just principal and interest.
Monthly payment breakdown
Your full monthly payment split into principal and interest, property tax, home insurance, PMI, and HOA. Most listing sites show only the blue P&I slice — the rest is why the real payment runs higher.
How this mortgage calculator works
Most mortgage calculators stop at principal and interest — the part of your payment that goes to the lender. That number alone can understate your real monthly cost by hundreds of dollars. This calculator shows full PITI: Principal, Interest, Taxes, and Insurance, plus PMI and HOA dues where they apply, so the figure you see is closer to what actually leaves your bank account each month.
Principal and interest are calculated from your loan amount, interest rate, and term using the standard amortization formula. The loan amount is your home price minus your down payment. We then add your monthly share of property taxes and home insurance, monthly HOA dues, and — if your down payment is below 20% — private mortgage insurance. The result is your estimated total monthly payment.
Key terms explained
Principal & interest (P&I). The core loan payment. Early in the loan, most of it is interest; over time, more goes toward principal.
Property tax. Set by your county or municipality, usually as a percentage of assessed value. National effective rates commonly fall between 0.3% and 2.2% of home value per year, so a local estimate matters. You can enter a dollar figure or a percentage of the price.
Home insurance. Homeowners insurance protects the structure and your belongings. Lenders require it, and the annual premium is spread across your monthly payment.
PMI (private mortgage insurance). Required on most conventional loans when you put down less than 20%. It protects the lender, not you, and typically costs 0.3%–1.5% of the loan per year. Once you reach 20% equity, you can usually request its removal.
HOA dues. If your home is in a homeowners association, monthly dues are a real recurring cost that lenders may factor into affordability — so we include them here.
2026 mortgage reference
Mortgage rates move daily and vary by credit score, loan type, and lender. Through 2026, conventional 30-year fixed rates have generally hovered in the 6%–7% range, with 15-year fixed loans running below that. A 15-year term carries a higher monthly payment but dramatically less total interest — try switching the term in the calculator to see the difference on your numbers.
A practical rule many buyers use is to keep total PITI at or below about 28% of gross monthly income. To check that against your real take-home pay, pair this with our paycheck calculator. Always confirm current rates and your specific property-tax rate with your lender and county before making decisions.
Worked example: how down payment changes the real payment
Consider a $450,000 home with a 30-year loan at 6.5%, $5,400 a year in property tax ($450/month), and $1,800 a year in insurance ($150/month) — the calculator's default scenario. The table below shows the same house at four down-payment levels, with PMI at 0.5% of the loan per year applied whenever the down payment is under 20%:
| Down payment | Loan amount | P&I | PMI | Full PITI / month | Total interest (30 yr) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5% ($22,500) | $427,500 | $2,702 | $178 | $3,480 | $545,253 |
| 10% ($45,000) | $405,000 | $2,560 | $169 | $3,329 | $516,555 |
| 15% ($67,500) | $382,500 | $2,418 | $159 | $3,177 | $487,858 |
| 20% ($90,000) | $360,000 | $2,275 | — | $2,875 | $459,160 |
Two things stand out. First, the jump from 15% to 20% down saves about $302 a month — $159 of it is simply PMI disappearing, not a smaller loan. Second, a buyer at 5% down pays roughly $86,000 more total interest over the life of the loan than one at 20% down, before counting a single dollar of PMI. That doesn't mean waiting for 20% is always right — home prices can rise faster than savings — but it shows exactly what the tradeoff costs, which is the number you need to make the call.
Term choice is the other big lever. On the $360,000 loan above, a 15-year mortgage at 5.9% costs about $3,018 a month in P&I versus $2,275 for the 30-year — $743 more per month — but total interest falls from roughly $459,000 to $183,000. If the higher payment fits under the 28% income guideline, the 15-year term keeps more than a quarter-million dollars out of the lender's pocket.
Common mistakes to avoid
Budgeting off the listing site's payment. Portals usually advertise P&I only. In the example above, the true PITI at 10% down is $3,329 — about 30% higher than the $2,560 P&I figure a listing would show. Decide affordability on the full number.
Forgetting that taxes and insurance rise. Your P&I is fixed on a fixed-rate loan, but property taxes get reassessed and insurance premiums reprice every year. A payment that is comfortable today should leave slack for the escrow portion to grow.
Ignoring PMI removal. If you buy with less than 20% down, note the date your balance is projected to hit 80% of the purchase price and request PMI cancellation then — servicers are required to auto-cancel at 78%, but you can usually act sooner and save months of premiums.