Mortgage calculator: what the payment actually is
At the current 30-year fixed rate of 7.03%, a home at the U.S. median sale price of $410,700 with 20% down costs about $2,719 a month once property tax and insurance are included — of which $2,193 is principal and interest. Change any input below and the number moves with it.
The calculator opens on the current national numbers rather than a figure someone typed into the source code, and it shows the whole amortisation schedule rather than a single monthly total, because the schedule is where the expensive information lives. Below the tool, the exact formula is written out, the assumptions are listed, and the places where a calculator like this one is wrong are named plainly.
Mortgage payment calculator
Your loan
U.S. effective rates run roughly 0.3% to 2.2% by state.
Estimated monthly payment
$2,719/mo
Payment breakdown
- Principal & interest$2,193
- Property tax$376
- Insurance$150
Down payment
$82,140
20% of $410,700
Loan amount
$328,560
Total interest
$460,755
Over 30 years
Total cost
$978,846
All payments combined
Amortisation schedule
| Year | Principal | Interest | Balance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $3,318 | $22,992 | $325,242 |
| 2 | $3,559 | $22,751 | $321,682 |
| 3 | $3,818 | $22,493 | $317,865 |
| 4 | $4,095 | $22,216 | $313,770 |
| 5 | $4,392 | $21,918 | $309,378 |
| 6 | $4,711 | $21,599 | $304,667 |
| 7 | $5,053 | $21,257 | $299,613 |
| 8 | $5,420 | $20,890 | $294,193 |
| 9 | $5,814 | $20,497 | $288,380 |
| 10 | $6,236 | $20,075 | $282,144 |
| 30 | $25,335 | $975 | $0 |
How the payment is calculated
A fixed-rate mortgage is an amortising loan, which means every payment is identical and each one is split between interest owed on the current balance and principal that reduces it. The payment is set once at closing so that the balance reaches exactly zero on the final scheduled payment. Solving for that payment gives the standard amortisation formula:
M = P × [ i (1 + i)ⁿ ] ÷ [ (1 + i)ⁿ − 1 ] M = monthly principal & interest payment P = loan amount (purchase price − down payment) i = annual interest rate ÷ 100 ÷ 12 (the monthly rate) n = loan term in years × 12 (total number of payments)
The term (1 + i)ⁿ is the reason a small change in the rate produces a large change in the payment: the rate is compounded 360 times over a 30-year loan, so it is doing exponential work, not linear work. That is also why the payment does not scale with the rate. Going from 6% to 7% is a one-point move, but it raises the payment on the same loan by roughly 11%, not by roughly 17%.
Principal and interest is only part of what leaves your account. The full monthly cost — what lenders call PITI — adds four more components, and this calculator models all of them:
| Component | How it is calculated here |
|---|---|
| Principal & interest | The amortisation formula above. Fixed for the life of a fixed-rate loan. |
| Property tax | Home price × your annual effective rate ÷ 12. Escrowed monthly by most lenders and reassessed by the county, usually after a sale. |
| Homeowner's insurance | Annual premium ÷ 12. Also escrowed. Set by the insurer on the cost to rebuild, not on the purchase price. |
| PMI | Loan amount × 0.5% ÷ 12, applied only when the down payment is under 20%. Cancels automatically at 78% of original value. |
| HOA dues | Entered directly. Not escrowed and not part of the loan — you pay the association separately, but it is real money out the door. |
The amortisation schedule in the tool recomputes the interest and principal split every single month rather than approximating it annually, which matters because the split changes fastest in the early years. That is the same arithmetic used everywhere else on this site — it lives in one shared module so a payment quoted on a city page and a payment quoted here can never disagree. The full write-up is on our methodology page.
A worked example at today’s numbers
Take the U.S. median sale price as published by the Census Bureau and HUD, and the Freddie Mac survey rate for the current week. Both are read from our economic indicator series when this page is generated, so the arithmetic below is current rather than illustrative of some past month.
| Purchase price (U.S. median sale price) | $410,700 |
| Down payment, 20% | $82,140 |
| Loan amount, P | $328,560 |
| Annual rate | 7.03% |
| Monthly rate, i | 0.005858 |
| Payments, n | 360 |
| Monthly principal & interest, M | $2,193 |
| Property tax at 1.1%/yr | $376 |
| Insurance at $1,800/yr | $150 |
| Total monthly payment | $2,719 |
Price: U.S. median sale price of houses sold (MSPUS), Census Bureau and HUD via FRED, Q2 2026. Published quarterly.Rate: Freddie Mac via FRED, September 2026
Over the full 30 years that loan repays $460,755 in interest — more than the amount borrowed. That is not a sign of a bad loan; it is what borrowing money for three decades costs at this rate. It is also why the two levers that matter most are the rate you are offered and how long you actually keep the loan.
What half a point is worth
Same $328,560 loan, same 30-year term, rate moved either side of today’s survey average. This is the table to look at before deciding whether spending a month on your credit file is worth it.
| Rate | Monthly P&I | vs today | Over 30 years |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6.03% | $1,976 | −$216 | −$77,874 |
| 6.53% | $2,083 | −$109 | −$39,360 |
| 7.03% (today) | $2,193 | — | — |
| 7.53% | $2,304 | +$112 | +$40,158 |
| 8.03% | $2,418 | +$225 | +$81,068 |
A borrower who moves from the second-best pricing tier to the best one on this loan keeps roughly the bottom row of that table. Nothing else available to a buyer in the weeks before an application moves the number that far.
What this calculator assumes, and where it is wrong
Every mortgage calculator makes assumptions. Most do not tell you what they are. These are ours, and the situations where they will mislead you:
Property tax is a single national-style rate you set by hand.
Effective property tax rates are set at the county and municipal level and range from roughly 0.3% of value in Hawaii to over 2.2% in New Jersey — and they vary between neighbouring towns in the same county. Several states also reassess a property to its sale price when it changes hands, so the tax the previous owner paid may bear no relation to what you will pay. Look up the actual rate for the parcel before you rely on this line.
Insurance is a flat annual premium you enter.
Homeowner's insurance is priced on the cost to rebuild, the roof age, the claims history of the property, and increasingly on wildfire, wind and flood exposure. In parts of Florida, Louisiana, California and Colorado premiums have moved by multiples in a few years, and in some ZIP codes the private market has withdrawn entirely. Flood insurance is separate and is not modelled here at all.
PMI is modelled at a flat 0.5% of the loan per year.
Real premiums run roughly 0.3% to 1.5% and are priced jointly off credit score and loan-to-value. A high-score borrower at 10% down can pay less than a low-score borrower at 15% down. FHA mortgage insurance works differently again — it has an upfront premium and, on most current FHA loans, an annual premium that lasts the life of the loan rather than cancelling at 78%.
HOA dues are excluded unless you enter them.
They are not part of the mortgage, so no lender escrows them, but they are a mandatory monthly cost that can run from $30 in a suburban single-family association to well over $1,000 in a serviced condo building — and special assessments for structural work are not in the monthly figure at all.
Closing costs are not in the monthly payment.
Expect roughly 2% to 5% of the purchase price at the table for lender fees, title, escrow, appraisal, recording and prepaid escrows. Some of it is negotiable and some can be rolled into the loan, which raises the balance and therefore the payment.
The rate shown is a national survey average, not your quote.
Freddie Mac's survey reports what lenders are advertising for a well-qualified borrower with 20% down on a conforming loan. Your actual quote depends on your credit tier, loan size, occupancy, property type, and whether you pay points. Treat the survey rate as the centre of a distribution, not as a promise.
Nothing here is a pre-approval.
This is arithmetic on the numbers you typed. Only a lender pulling your credit and verifying income and assets can tell you what you qualify for, and only a rate lock fixes the rate.
Common questions
What is the formula for a monthly mortgage payment?
Monthly principal and interest is M = P × [ i(1+i)^n ] ÷ [ (1+i)^n − 1 ], where P is the loan amount, i is the annual interest rate divided by 1,200 (the monthly rate), and n is the number of monthly payments. At a 7.03% 30-year rate, i is 0.005858 and n is 360. That formula produces principal and interest only. Property tax, homeowner's insurance, mortgage insurance and any HOA dues are added on top, which is why the number your lender quotes is always higher than an amortisation calculator's bare output.
Why is so much of my early payment going to interest?
Interest is charged on the balance you still owe, and at the start you owe almost the entire loan. Each month the interest portion is the outstanding balance times the monthly rate; whatever is left of your fixed payment goes to principal. Because the payment is fixed while the balance shrinks, the split shifts steadily toward principal. On a 30-year loan the crossover — the first month where more of the payment goes to principal than to interest — typically lands somewhere between year 17 and year 21 depending on the rate. The amortisation table in the calculator shows the exact year for your inputs.
Does this calculator include PMI?
Yes, when the down payment is under 20%. Private mortgage insurance is modelled at 0.5% of the loan amount per year, divided by twelve. Real PMI premiums range roughly from 0.3% to 1.5% annually and are priced off your credit score and loan-to-value together — a borrower at 760 pays a fraction of what a borrower at 640 pays on the identical loan. PMI is not permanent: under the Homeowners Protection Act it must be cancelled automatically once the balance reaches 78% of the original purchase price, and you can request cancellation at 80%.
Should I take a 15-year or a 30-year mortgage?
On the $328,560 loan in the example above, a 30-year at 7.03% costs $2,193 a month, and a 15-year at the same rate costs $2,959 — about $766 more each month. In exchange the 15-year retires roughly $256,748 less in total payments, and 15-year rates are usually quoted below 30-year rates, which widens the gap further. The 30-year is not the worse loan; it is the more flexible one. You can always pay a 30-year like a 15-year, but you cannot pay a 15-year like a 30-year in a month when income drops.
How much does my credit score change the payment?
More than almost any input on this page other than the price itself. Mortgage pricing moves in credit tiers, and the spread between the top tier and a mid-tier borrower is routinely half a point to a full point of rate on an otherwise identical file — plus a materially higher PMI premium if the down payment is under 20%. Use the rate ladder on this page to see what half a point is worth on your loan in dollars per month. Credit is also the input with the shortest lead time: a rate is set the week you lock, but a score can move in a single billing cycle.
Where to go next
The other two calculators
- Affordability calculator — works the other direction: from your income and debts to the price you qualify for.
- Rent vs. buy calculator — the break-even year, including the cost to sell and what your down payment would have earned invested.
How we get these numbers
- Methodology — every formula and assumption on the site, written out.
- Data sources — each provider, what it publishes, and how current it is.
- All markets — state and city hubs with live prices.
Run the payment against a real market
The payment only means something next to what homes actually cost where you are looking. Each city page carries current values, inventory and days on market:
The rate is the biggest number on this page. Credit sets the rate.
Tell us your timeline and we'll send what your file needs to look like before you apply — the specific items that move a mortgage credit tier, and how long each one takes to clear.