Far Better Off

Mortgage Calculator

Free · no sign-up · reviewed September 2026

This mortgage calculator shows your real monthly payment, not just principal and interest, but property taxes, homeowners insurance, HOA fees and, if you put less than 20% down, PMI too, so the number matches what you'll actually pay.

Just drag the sliders. Everything updates instantly, and the ring shows exactly where your money goes each month.

Drag to adjust

Your numbers

Enter down payment as

Starts at 7.28%, the national average on a 30-year fixed (Freddie Mac, Oct 1, 2026). Type a lender's quote over it.

Loan term

Anything you pay on top of principal & interest, applied straight to the balance. Tell your servicer to apply it to principal.

Starts at 0.89% of the home price — the national average effective rate (2024 American Community Survey) — and follows the price until you enter your own bill. Rates range from about 0.3% to over 2% by state, so your county's bill is the real number.

Starts at the measured US average for a home at this price — $1,930 a year at $400,000 (2024 American Community Survey) — and follows the price until you enter your own premium. It climbs far more slowly than the price does, because you insure the house, not the land. Your own declarations page is the real number.

Not part of the payment — it sets what the house costs to keep up. A new build costs far less to maintain than a 1950s one; no lender counts either.

🖼 Save image

Your numbers save automatically on this device. The link opens this calculator with these exact numbers filled in, so you can bookmark a scenario or send it to someone. Printing gives you a clean sheet of just your numbers and the answer, so open the schedule first if you want it on there — whichever view you leave showing is what prints.

Your monthly payment

$2,647.81

$2,189.48 loan + $458.33 taxes, insurance

💡 Over 30 years you'd pay $468,213 in interest, more than the $320,000 you borrowed. A shorter term, or a little extra principal each month, cuts that dramatically. The payment above is what a lender collects. A 1980s home at $400,000 also costs roughly $333.33 a month to keep up — 1% of its value a year for the roof, furnace, water heater and the hundred smaller things — which no escrow collects and no lender counts, so owning it really runs about $2,981.15 a month.

Per month$2,648
  • Principal & interest$2,189
  • Property tax$300
  • Home insurance$158
Down payment
$80,000 (20%)
Loan amount
$320,000
Total interest paid
$468,213
Total of all payments
$788,213
Upkeep on a 1980s home
$333.33/mo (1% a year)
Payment + upkeep
$2,981.15/mo
⚖️ Compare two scenarios

Change one thing and see both mortgages side by side. Everything else stays exactly as you set it above.

Loan term to compare
Mortgage Calculator: 30 yr compared with 15 yr
Figure30 yrYour numbers15 yrComparedDifference
Monthly payment$2,647.81$3,384.91+$737.10
Payment + upkeep$2,981.15$3,718.24+$737.09
Principal & interest$2,189.48$2,926.58+$737.10
Down payment$80,000$80,000same
Loan amount$320,000$320,000same
Total interest$468,213$206,784−$261,429
Total of all payments$788,213$526,784−$261,429
Paid off in30 yr15 yr15 yr sooner

Only the field you picked changes — except the property tax, which follows the home price at 0.89% a year unless you've entered your own bill, so comparing two prices compares two tax bills too, and the upkeep, which is a share of the price. Insurance, HOA and the PMI rate are identical in both columns. Total interest and total of all payments cover the loan itself, not tax, insurance, HOA, PMI or upkeep.

📅 Amortization schedule

How each year of the mortgage splits between principal and interest, and what you still owe at the end of it. Switch to Months to step through the payments themselves.

YearPrincipalInterestBalance left
1$3,079$23,195$316,921
2$3,311$22,963$313,610
3$3,560$22,714$310,050
4$3,828$22,446$306,222
5$4,116$22,157$302,105
6$4,426$21,848$297,679
7$4,759$21,514$292,919
8$5,118$21,156$287,802
9$5,503$20,771$282,299
10$5,917$20,356$276,381
11$6,363$19,911$270,019
12$6,842$19,432$263,177
13$7,357$18,917$255,820
14$7,911$18,363$247,910
15$8,506$17,768$239,404
16$9,146$17,127$230,258
17$9,835$16,439$220,423
18$10,575$15,699$209,847
19$11,371$14,902$198,476
20$12,227$14,046$186,249
21$13,148$13,126$173,101
22$14,138$12,136$158,963
23$15,202$11,072$143,762
24$16,346$9,928$127,415
25$17,577$8,697$109,839
26$18,900$7,374$90,939
27$20,323$5,951$70,616
28$21,852$4,421$48,764
29$23,498$2,776$25,266
30$25,266$1,007$0
Total$320,000$468,213$0

Interest is charged on the balance you still owe, so early years are mostly interest and later years mostly principal. Assumes every payment is made on time and the rate never changes. It also assumes no extra principal is paid. This is the loan itself — principal and interest only. Property tax, insurance, HOA and PMI aren't part of the balance you owe, so they're not in the table.

Mortgage Calculator · Far Better Off

https://farbetteroff.com/calculators/mortgage-calculator

Open that link to get this calculator back with these exact numbers. Estimates for education only — Far Better Off is not a lender or a financial advisor, and these results are not financial advice.

The 2-minute guide

PITI: the four parts of your payment

Your monthly payment is really four things bundled together: Principal, Interest, Taxes and Insurance. The principal and interest go to your lender; taxes and insurance are often collected with your payment and held in an 'escrow' account. That's why the true payment is bigger than a simple loan calculator suggests.

The fifth cost, the one no lender asks about

Principal, interest, taxes and insurance are what underwriting counts and what escrow collects. The roof, the furnace, the water heater and the hundred smaller things are not — you pay those out of whatever is left. Pick the decade your home was built and the breakdown estimates them: on a $400,000 1980s house it is about $333 a month, roughly 1% of the home's value a year, which turns a $2,481 payment into $2,814 a month of house.

The rate matters more than the price

A small change in interest rate moves your payment and total cost a surprising amount, because you pay it on every dollar for decades. Shopping a few lenders for a slightly better rate can save more than haggling over the home price.

Watch the total interest

On a 30-year loan you can easily pay nearly as much in interest as the home cost. A shorter term or extra principal payments cut that dramatically. Open "Compare two scenarios" under the results to put a 15-year loan next to your 30-year one, and to see what a lower rate, a bigger down payment or an extra $200 a month is worth.

Aim for 20% down if you can

Putting 20% down lets you skip PMI (private mortgage insurance), a monthly fee lenders add when your down payment is smaller. It also lowers what you borrow, shrinking both your payment and your lifetime interest.

Frequently asked questions

What's included in a monthly mortgage payment?

Four things, often called PITI: Principal, Interest, Taxes and Insurance. Many payments also include HOA dues and, if your down payment is under 20%, PMI. This calculator adds up principal, interest, taxes, insurance, HOA and, when you put less than 20% down, PMI.

Does this include maintenance and repairs?

It charges them, but next to the payment rather than inside it — which is where they really sit, because no lender counts upkeep and no escrow collects it. Pick the decade the house was built and the breakdown adds two lines: what it costs to keep up, and the payment plus that. On the default numbers a 1980s home at $400,000 costs about $333 a month to maintain, 1% of its value a year, so a $2,480.95 payment is really $2,814.28 a month of house. A 2020s build is 0.7% ($233 a month) and a 1950s one 1.05% ($350): upkeep climbs steeply for about 25 years and is then roughly flat for the rest of the home's life. That shape is read from the 2023 American Housing Survey's routine-maintenance question (25,183 owner-occupied homes, weighted to 77.6 million), and the 1% anchor is the familiar rule of thumb — measured routine maintenance alone runs lower, around 0.63%, because it leaves out the replacement roof and furnace that a survey counts as improvements.

When does PMI go away?

On a conventional loan, your servicer must cancel PMI automatically once your balance is scheduled to reach 78% of the home's original value, as long as you're current on payments — and by the midpoint of your loan's schedule at the latest, even if it hasn't. You can ask to cancel earlier, once you've paid down to 80%, and extra principal payments count toward that. Put a down payment under 20% in above and this calculator shows the date for your numbers: the breakdown gives the month PMI drops off and what it costs you until then, and the year is marked in the amortization schedule.

How much house can I afford?

A common rule of thumb is to keep your total monthly housing payment under 28% of your gross (before-tax) monthly income. Try lowering the home price slider until the payment fits that range.

Where's the amortization schedule?

Under the results, open "Amortization schedule". It shows, for every year of the loan, how much of your payments went to principal, how much went to interest, and what you still owe at the end of that year. Switch it to Months for the first year payment by payment, which is where the split is easiest to see: on a $320,000 loan at 6.5%, payment 1 is $1,733.33 of interest and $289.28 of principal. Early years are mostly interest because interest is charged on the balance you still owe; as the balance falls, more of each payment goes to principal.

What happens if I pay extra on my mortgage each month?

Set "Extra principal / month" above and the calculator reruns the whole loan with that amount going straight to the balance every month. You'll see the new payoff time and the interest it saves. Extra principal works because interest is charged on what you still owe, so knocking the balance down early stops interest accruing on that money for the rest of the loan. It doesn't reduce your required monthly payment, though — it shortens the loan instead. Ask your servicer to apply extra payments to principal, not to prepay next month's bill.

Is a 15-year or a 30-year mortgage better?

It depends which you'd rather have: a smaller payment or a smaller total cost. Open "Compare two scenarios" under the results and the calculator runs both at once. On the default numbers — $400,000 with 20% down at 6.5% — the 15-year loan costs $764.93 a month more in principal and interest ($2,787.54 against $2,022.62), and saves $226,384 in interest ($181,758 against $408,142), with the house paid off 15 years sooner. The same panel compares any other single change: a rate a point lower, a bigger down payment, a different price, or extra principal every month.

Does the property tax change when I change the home price?

Yes. Move the home price and the property tax moves with it, at 0.89% of the price a year — the national average effective rate across all 87 million owner-occupied US homes in the 2024 American Community Survey. That's a starting point, not your bill: rates run from about 0.3% to over 2% depending on the state and county, and some places assess on a value that isn't the purchase price. Type your own figure into "Property tax / yr" and it stays put from then on, whatever you do to the price.

Does a bigger down payment lower my payment?

Yes, a larger down payment means you borrow less, so both your monthly payment and total interest drop. Reaching 20% down also lets you avoid PMI.

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