Adjust the orange knobs to calculate an affordable house price given your budget and associated costs.
This comprehensive mortgage calculator helps you estimate what house price (“sticker price”) is affordable given your budget. Adjust the sliders to instantly see how down payments, loan terms, property tax, and other costs affect your maximum affordable house price.
Upfront budget is the money you have available immediately for a down payment and closing costs.
Monthly budget is the amount you are able to pay each month for all house-related expenses.
Loan term is the length of your mortgage loan.
Mortgage insurance (purple area) is usually added to your mortgage payment if your down payment is less than 20% of the house price. It is charged each month until you have made enough payments to own at least 20% of your house. The calculator automatically detects whether mortgage insurance is applicable, and if so, it uses an insurance rate of 0.75% of the mortgage amount per year.
Principal (darker blue area) is the amount of each mortgage payment that goes towards owning your house. This reduces your loan amount remaining until you eventually pay off the mortgage.
Interest (lighter blue area) is the amount of each mortgage payment that goes towards paying interest on the loan, determined by your mortgage's interest rate (APR).
House price is the listed purchase price or "sticker price" of the house. None of your other costs of ownership are included.
Total cost is the total amount you will spend over the life of the mortgage, including the purchase price, interest on your mortgage, taxes, maintenance, and any other related costs you specify.
Loan rate is the yearly (APR) interest rate on your mortgage. If you have a variable-rate mortgage, your future costs are more uncertain, but you can estimate them using your initial or expected interest rate.
Property tax is the yearly property tax rate where the house is located.
Other monthly costs include anything else you consider to be part of your ongoing housing expenses, such as maintenance, condo association (HOA) dues, homeowner's insurance, and utilities. House maintenance expenses vary widely from year to year (depending on what needs to be repaired or replaced), but a common rule of thumb estimates maintenance costs at $2 per square foot per year, which is about $330 per month for a 2000-square-foot house.
Closing fees are any fees due at the time you buy the house. The amount you enter here is in addition to two components of your total closing costs which the calculator automatically includes: 20 days of mortgage interest and 7 months of property taxes. Common additional items include prepaid hazard insurance, loan fees, house inspection fees, and local government fees. You can also adjust this value to estimate higher or lower scenarios for the automatically-included costs.