Start with the same home and running costs
Before comparing financing, hold the property price and running-cost assumptions constant unless you intentionally want to compare different homes. A smaller displayed payment can reflect omitted insurance or escrow rather than cheaper financing. Save the current scenario, then change the form. Up to two saved scenarios plus the current scenario appear together. Every export retains their inputs, source labels, missing costs and modeled results. This is a comparison of assumptions, not a recommendation or lender selection service.
Try 15 years versus 30 years
Start with the complete $400,000 home and $80,000 down example. Save the 30-year scenario, then enter 15 years at the same hypothetical 5% note rate. The shorter term changes P&I and its own total interest. It does not change your entered annual property tax or monthly utilities. Both rows use the current comparison-period control, initially five years. A five-year cash-outflow figure and the remaining loan balance let you inspect the same period without incorrectly equating the lifetime totals of different-length loans.
Change down payment or note-rate scenarios
Switch down payment between US dollars and percent without changing its value. Then deliberately adjust it. A lower down payment increases the loan and may involve mortgage insurance under an actual loan arrangement. While exploring sample assumptions, the tool uses an explicitly hypothetical $100 monthly PMI below 20% down; it never overrides a premium you marked as your own figure. The $0, $100 and $200 buttons are sensitivities, not premium quotes. The 5%, 6% and 7% note-rate buttons are also hypothetical examples, not available offers or APR values.
Read cash outflow and remaining debt together
Common-horizon cash outflow includes the down payment, simulated loan installments including any extra principal actually applied, plus recurring expenses for every month of the selected period. When a loan pays off before that period ends, loan installments and monthly PMI stop, but property taxes, homeowners insurance and other ownership expenses continue. The remaining loan is shown separately; cash outflow is not a net economic cost, investment return or net worth estimate. Property appreciation, closing costs, sale costs, income taxes and deductions are excluded. Incomplete expense coverage suppresses a full-budget difference rather than inventing a cheapest option.