Mortgage & Full Housing Budget Calculator
See the full cost of owning a home, beyond the mortgage payment. Explore a complete example or use your own figures, then compare up to three scenarios without an account.
What would this home cost each month?
Start with a complete example, then replace its assumptions with your figures. No account. Everything is calculated in your browser.
View example budget: $2,741.16 / month
Example amounts are not offers or predictions. A property budget stays provisional while example or historical amounts remain.
Your monthly housing budget
Illustrative example — not a quote.
Full monthly ownership budget
—Estimated lender payment
—Includes selected escrow costs and monthly PMI.
Principal and interest
—Where the monthly money goes
Financing and each running cost are labeled in the equivalent table below. Escrow is a payment destination, not an extra expense.
| Component | Monthly USD | Assumption | Paid through lender? |
|---|
Assumptions and missing costs
This complete example combines hypothetical amounts with a historical national tax benchmark. Your property-specific costs may differ.
Review the labeled assumptions and any missing costs. Keep the starting figures to explore, or replace them with bills and quotes you already have. Then save a scenario to compare on the same basis.
Compare up to three scenarios
Save the current scenario, then change the form to explore another. Saved figures stay unchanged; the comparison period always follows the current form. Differences (Δ) use the first saved scenario as the baseline; without saved scenarios they are zero.
| Scenario | Ownership / month | Difference | Down payment | Term interest | Horizon cash outflow | Remaining loan |
|---|
Term interest covers each loan's own payoff period. Common-horizon cash outflow includes down payment, actual P&I, extra principal applied to the loan and recurring costs; remaining loan is separate. Closing costs, price changes, deductions and inflation are excluded.
Payoff and interest
Extra principal changes payoff. Monthly PMI stays fixed while the modeled loan exists and stops at full payoff. Ordinary ownership expenses continue through the comparison period. No earlier PMI cancellation or future premium changes are predicted.
View monthly loan schedule
| Month | Payment | Interest | Principal | Balance |
|---|
Export stays on your device; it includes assumptions and any missing costs.
How it works
Calculate financing separately
The loan equals home price minus down payment. For a fixed note rate, monthly P&I is P × r / (1 − (1 + r)⁻ⁿ), where r is annual interest divided by 1,200 and n is the number of monthly payments. At zero interest, divide the loan by the payment count. An extra principal amount reduces the balance faster; the final payment is adjusted rather than overpaying the loan.
Keep three totals distinct
P&I is the financing payment. The lender payment adds monthly PMI and only the taxes and insurance you pay through escrow. Full ownership adds all those expenses plus HOA, maintenance and utilities once, regardless of destination. In the complete example, P&I is $1,717.83, lender payment is $2,141.16 and ownership budget is $2,741.16. Extra principal is an optional monthly setting while a modeled loan exists. With no loan, the setting is retained but inactive and adds no cash outflow.
Check the source of each amount
The tax starting point is a historical 2024 ACS national median for owner-occupied homes with a mortgage, not a local rate or this home's bill. Other default amounts are hypothetical examples. Each field distinguishes examples, that historical benchmark, your figures, unknown costs and explicit not-applicable choices. Unknown costs produce a known subtotal, never a complete budget.
Common questions
Why does lender payment change when I turn off escrow?
You still owe the tax and insurance expenses, but pay them directly instead of through the lender. The estimated lender payment falls; full ownership cost stays the same. Compare quotes on a consistent cost basis rather than assuming the smaller lender payment means a cheaper home.
Is the historical national benchmark my tax bill?
No. The 2024 ACS benchmark is a national historical dollar median across mortgaged owner-occupied homes. It is not a local statutory rate, current assessment or recent-buyer prediction. The survey margin of error describes sampling uncertainty in the national estimate, not the range of tax bills for your property. A known annual bill can replace it.
Is the sample 5% interest rate a current offer or APR?
No. It is a hypothetical note-rate scenario. The 5%, 6% and 7% buttons are examples, not prevailing rates or loan offers. If you already have a quote, enter its note rate. APR includes other financing costs and should not be substituted automatically into this payment formula.
What if I do not know the insurance or PMI cost?
Keep the clearly labeled example for provisional exploration, or choose Unknown for the specific property. The result then lists missing costs and shows only a known subtotal. A blank amount is not silently treated as zero. Explicit Not applicable is different from Unknown. PMI depends on the actual loan arrangement, so the sample is not a premium or eligibility decision.
Do extra payments automatically remove PMI?
This model does not determine PMI cancellation. Extra principal reduces the simulated loan balance and interest, with a smaller final installment when needed. PMI stays at the entered monthly amount while the modeled loan exists, then stops at full payoff. This does not predict an earlier cancellation based on equity or eligibility. Check the actual loan terms separately; no automatic removal date is promised.
Practical guides
- Mortgage Escrow vs. Your Full Ownership Budget
Compare lender payments fairly when one includes escrow and another does not. Work through the same ownership costs with two payment destinations.
- Compare Mortgage Scenarios on the Same Basis
Compare down payments, note rates and loan terms using a common cash-flow horizon, while keeping remaining debt and lifetime interest separate.
- Taxes, Insurance and PMI: Build an Honest Housing Estimate
Use a dated tax benchmark and explicit example costs without confusing them with local bills or loan quotes. Keep missing expenses visible.
Scope and limitations
Educational fixed-rate planning arithmetic, not a mortgage offer, verified bill, affordability recommendation or eligibility decision. No ARM, balloon loan, tax deductions, PMI cancellation, price appreciation or future expense forecasts. Ordinary ownership expenses are constant assumptions through the comparison period; PMI is fixed only while the modeled loan exists. Closing costs are excluded. Inputs stay local and ephemeral; there is no account, runtime data feed or calculation service.