Calculated locallyAll calculations happen in your browser. Zero data transmitted.
Loan Details
Additional Costs
Monthly Payment
$1,816
Principal and Interest only
Calculated locally - zero data transmitted - FREE FOREVER
$280k
Loan Amount
$374k
Total Interest
$654k
Total Cost
Payment Breakdown
Four inputs. Instant results. Nothing stored.
1. Enter Home Price
Type the purchase price of the home. The calculator automatically sets a 20% down payment as the starting point. You can adjust this freely.
2. Set Your Down Payment
Enter a dollar amount or drag the slider to set your down payment percentage. Drop below 20% and the PMI toggle becomes relevant — enable it to see the true cost.
3. Enter Interest Rate
Use your lender's quoted rate or the current national average. Even a 0.25% difference changes your total interest paid by thousands of dollars over 30 years.
4. Choose Loan Term
Select 10, 15, 20, or 30 years. Shorter terms mean higher monthly payments but dramatically less total interest. Use the Scenario Comparison tab to see the numbers side by side.
Most people focus on the principal and interest number, but your real monthly obligation is higher. Lenders use the acronym PITI — Principal, Interest, Taxes, and Insurance — to describe the full payment. When you add PMI and HOA, the gap between your P&I payment and your actual monthly cost can be $400 to $700 on a median-priced home.
Property taxes are collected monthly into an escrow account by your servicer and paid to the county annually. In high-tax states like New Jersey, Illinois, or Connecticut, property taxes alone can add $600 to $900 per month to a $400,000 home. That's not a small number. This calculator uses a 1.2% annual rate as the national average estimate — toggle it on and see what it adds to your payment.
PMI disappears once you reach 20% equity, but until then it's a real cost. On a $350,000 loan with 5% down, PMI at 0.85% annually adds $248 per month — that's $2,976 per year for coverage that protects your lender, not you. Putting 20% down eliminates it entirely. If you can't hit 20%, aim to reach it as fast as possible through extra principal payments.
Here's the thing most lenders don't explain clearly: in the first year of a 30-year mortgage, roughly 80% of each payment goes to interest. You're paying $1,946 per month on a $300,000 loan at 6.75%, but only about $270 of that first payment reduces your balance. The remaining $1,676 goes straight to the lender as interest.
This front-loading of interest is baked into the amortization formula. Every month your balance drops slightly, so the interest portion shrinks and the principal portion grows — but slowly. By year 10 of a 30-year loan, you've paid about 30% of total interest but reduced your principal by only about 15%. The math is not intuitive, which is exactly why this calculator includes a full amortization schedule.
Click "Full Amortization Schedule" above to see every payment, month by month. Scroll to any point in the loan to see exactly how much you'd still owe. Pay attention to what happens when you make even one extra principal payment early — it ripples through every subsequent row, shaving months off the loan and hundreds of dollars off total interest.
How does the mortgage calculator work?
Enter your home price, down payment, interest rate, and loan term. The calculator computes your monthly principal and interest payment using the standard amortization formula. Toggle property tax, insurance, PMI, and HOA to see your full monthly cost. All calculations happen instantly in your browser — no data is sent anywhere.
What is included in a monthly mortgage payment?
A full mortgage payment has four components: Principal (reduces your loan balance), Interest (the lender's fee for the loan), Taxes (property tax escrowed monthly), and Insurance (homeowners insurance). Below 20% down payment, PMI is added. HOA fees apply to condos and some communities.
What is PMI and when do I need it?
PMI is Private Mortgage Insurance. Lenders require it when your down payment is below 20%. It protects the lender — not you — against default. Typical cost is 0.5% to 1.5% of the loan amount annually. It's automatically removed when your loan balance hits 80% of the original home value.
What is an amortization schedule?
An amortization schedule shows every monthly payment over the life of your loan, broken into principal and interest. In early years, most of each payment is interest. As the loan ages, the principal portion grows. Extra payments made early in the loan have an outsized impact on total interest paid.
How much house can I afford?
Lenders use the 28/36 rule: housing costs should stay under 28% of gross monthly income, and total debt under 36%. For a $7,000/month gross income, the max housing payment is $1,960. Use this calculator to find the home price that keeps your payment in that range given your down payment and current rates.
FHA Mortgage Calculator
Calculate your FHA payment including upfront and annual MIP. Down payment requirements by credit score.
15-Year vs 30-Year Mortgage
Side-by-side interest cost analysis. On a $300,000 loan the difference is $237,000.
Mortgage Refinance Calculator
Calculate your break-even point. When refinancing saves money and when it costs you.
VA Loan Calculator
No PMI, no down payment. Calculate your VA loan payment with funding fee included.
Amortization Schedule Generator
How to read your payment breakdown and where extra payments have the most impact.
Mortgage Payoff Calculator
How extra payments eliminate years off your loan and save thousands in interest.
Calculations are estimates for educational purposes only. Actual mortgage terms, rates, and payments depend on lender requirements and your financial profile. Truly Free Mortgage Calculator does not collect personal data and does not connect users with lenders. Always consult a licensed mortgage professional before making financial decisions.
Methodology, data sources, and what each component means for your monthly payment.
The P&I payment is calculated using the standard amortization formula: M = P[r(1+r)ⁿ]/[(1+r)ⁿ-1], where P is the loan principal, r is the monthly interest rate, and n is the total number of payments. This formula is mathematically exact for fixed-rate loans and produces the same result your lender's system uses. Enter any home price, down payment, rate, and term and the output is accurate to the cent.
Most online calculators show you principal and interest and stop there. The number your lender actually qualifies you on is PITI — Principal, Interest, Taxes, and Insurance — and often PITI plus PMI if your down payment is under 20%. On a $400,000 home, the difference between P&I and full PITI can be $500–800/month. This calculator lets you toggle each component independently so you see the real number before you fall in love with a listing.
PMI is required by most lenders when your down payment is below 20% of the purchase price. It protects the lender — not you — against default risk. The national average PMI rate is approximately 0.8% of the loan amount annually, or roughly $267/month on a $400,000 loan. PMI cancels once your equity crosses 20% of the original appraised value. The amortization schedule in this calculator shows you the exact month when PMI drops off based on your payment schedule.
Property tax varies dramatically by state and county. The national average is approximately 1.07% of home value annually, but it ranges from 0.28% in Hawaii to over 2.2% in parts of New Jersey and Illinois. This calculator defaults to 1.2% as a conservative national estimate. For accurate numbers, enter your specific county's effective rate — your county assessor's website publishes this figure. State-specific calculators for California, Texas, Florida, and seven other states are available with pre-loaded local rates.
The Scenario Comparison tab lets you model up to three loan configurations side by side. This is most useful for comparing 15-year versus 30-year terms, evaluating the monthly cost of a rate buydown, or understanding how an extra $20,000 in down payment changes your monthly obligation. On a $400,000 loan, the difference between a 6.5% and 7.0% rate is $132/month — and $47,520 in total interest over 30 years. Seeing those numbers in parallel makes the decision concrete.
Every calculation in this tool runs in your browser. No data is transmitted to any server. The home price, income assumptions, or rate information you enter never leaves your device. There is no account, no session cookie that stores your inputs, and no analytics that track what numbers you ran. This is a deliberate architectural choice — not a privacy policy promise. Client-side calculation means there is no server to send your data to.
Principal and interest calculations are mathematically exact using the standard amortization formula. Property tax, PMI, and homeowners insurance figures are national average estimates — your actual costs depend on location, lender, credit score, and loan type. For a precise quote, use these calculations as a starting point before speaking with a licensed lender.