Mortgage Calculator

Use our Mortgage Calculator to estimate your monthly mortgage payment. You can input a different home price, down payment, loan term and interest rate to see how your monthly payment changes.

Our monthly payment estimates are broken down by principal, interest, property taxes and homeowners insurance.

Deciding how much house you can afford

If you’re not sure how much of your income should go toward housing, follow the tried-and-true 28/36 percent rule. Most financial advisers agree that people should spend no more than 28 percent of their gross income on housing (i.e., your mortgage payment), and no more than 36 percent of their gross income on total debt, including mortgage payments, credit cards, student loans, medical bills and the like.

Here’s an example of what this looks like:

Joe makes $60,000 a year. That’s a gross monthly income of $5,000 a month.

$5,000 x 0.28 = $1,400 total monthly mortgage payment (PITI)

Joe’s total monthly mortgage payments — including principal, interest, taxes and insurance — shouldn’t exceed $1,400 per month. That’s a maximum loan amount of roughly $253,379.

You can qualify for a mortgage with a DTI ratio of up to 50 percent for some loans, but you might not have enough wiggle room in your budget for other living expenses, retirement, emergency savings and discretionary spending if you stretch yourself too thin. Lenders don’t take those budget items into account when they preapprove you for a loan, so it’s up to you to factor those expenses into your housing affordability picture for yourself.

Knowing what you can afford can help you take financially sound next steps. The last thing you want to do is jump into a 30-year home loan that’s too expensive for your budget, even if a lender is willing to loan you the money.