Mortgage Payment Calculator
Estimate your full monthly payment, including principal, interest, property taxes, insurance, PMI, and HOA dues.
Free mortgage tools and guides
Make Smarter Home-Buying Decisions.
Estimate payments, test what you can afford, and understand your loan options with free mortgage calculators and plain-English home-buying guides. No sign-up, and your numbers never leave your browser.
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Mortgage calculators
Five focused tools that show their math, list what they include, and work on any device.
Mortgage Affordability Calculator
See an estimated home price range from your income, debts, and down payment, using ratios you can adjust.
Debt-to-Income Ratio Calculator
Find your current DTI and how a new housing payment would change it, with a plain-language explanation.
Refinance Break-Even Calculator
Estimate how long it takes for lower payments to cover closing costs, and compare total costs over time.
Mortgage Amortization Calculator
View a month-by-month or yearly schedule of principal, interest, and balance, and download it as a CSV file.
All calculators
Not sure where to start? Compare the tools and pick the one that matches the decision in front of you.
Getting started: mortgage basics in four steps
A practical order for working through a home purchase, with the tool or guide that fits each step.
Learn how payments work
Understand principal, interest, escrow, and amortization in our mortgage basics guides.
Check your debt-to-income ratio
See how much of your income already goes to debts with the DTI calculator.
Estimate a comfortable price
Test different budgets and assumptions with the affordability calculator.
Compare real loan offers
Use the payment calculator to compare Loan Estimates from different lenders side by side.
Popular home-buying guides
Plain-language explanations of the topics buyers ask about most.
Most-read guides
Recently published articles
New and updated guides from ClearPath Guides.
Home Buying
A First-Time Homebuyer's Mortgage Checklist
Buying your first home involves a lot of paperwork, deadlines, and decisions, and the mortgage is at the center of most of them. This checklist walks through the process in order, from getting your finances ready to the days after closing, so you know what to do at each stage and what to watch for. On this page Get your finances ready Set a realistic budget Learn your loan options Get prequalified or preapproved Compare Loan Estimates From accepted offer to closing After closing Key takeaways Get your finances ready Start several months before you plan to make an offer if you can. That gives you time to fix problems and build savings. Check your credit reports. The Federal Trade Commission explains that AnnualCreditReport.com is the only site authorized to fill orders for the free credit reports you're entitled to by law. Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion have also made free weekly online reports permanent through that...
Loan Types
Fixed-Rate vs. Adjustable-Rate Mortgages
One of the first choices you make when you get a mortgage is whether the interest rate stays the same for the life of the loan or can change over time. Each option has trade-offs. This guide explains how fixed-rate and adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) work, what the terms in ARM offers mean, and which questions to ask before you choose. On this page How a fixed-rate mortgage works How an adjustable-rate mortgage works Rate caps and other ARM limits A hypothetical payment comparison Side-by-side comparison Questions to ask before choosing Key takeaways How a fixed-rate mortgage works With a fixed-rate mortgage, the CFPB explains, the interest rate is set when you take out the loan and doesn't change. Your principal-and-interest payment stays the same from the first payment to the last, and it follows a standard amortization schedule. (Your total payment can still change if property taxes or insurance in escrow go up or down.) Th...
Home Buying
How Debt-to-Income Ratio Works
Your debt-to-income ratio, or DTI, is one of the main numbers a mortgage lender uses to judge whether you can handle a new monthly payment. It is simple to calculate, but there is a lot of confusion about which debts count and what counts as "too high." This guide explains how DTI works and how to use it in your own planning. On this page What debt-to-income ratio is How to calculate DTI Front-end vs. back-end ratios What usually counts and what usually doesn't Is there a maximum DTI? Ways to lower your DTI What DTI doesn't tell you Key takeaways What debt-to-income ratio is The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau defines your debt-to-income ratio as all your monthly debt payments divided by your gross monthly income. Gross income is your income before taxes and other deductions are taken out. Lenders use DTI to estimate how much room your budget has for a new loan payment. DTI is not the only factor in a mo...
Mortgage Basics
What Is Mortgage Amortization?
Amortization is the schedule that turns a large loan into a series of equal monthly payments that bring the balance to zero by the end of the term. Understanding it explains why your balance falls slowly at first, why extra payments early on have an outsized effect, and when mortgage insurance may come off. On this page What amortization means How each payment is split A sample amortization schedule How the balance changes over the years What extra payments do Amortization and mortgage insurance When loans do not amortize normally Key takeaways What amortization means An amortizing loan is repaid in regular installments that cover both interest and part of the principal. With a standard fixed-rate mortgage, the total principal-and-interest payment stays the same every month. What changes is how that payment is divided. The CFPB explains that at the start of the loan you owe more interest, so more of each payment goes to int...
Mortgage Basics
How Mortgage Payments Are Calculated
A mortgage payment can look like a number a lender simply hands you, but the core of it comes from one standard formula. Once you know what goes into that formula, you can check a quote yourself, compare loan terms, and see why a small change in the interest rate can change your payment noticeably. On this page What goes into a mortgage payment The monthly payment formula A worked example, step by step How rate and term change the payment Costs beyond principal and interest Estimates vs. official loan figures Key takeaways What goes into a mortgage payment For a typical fixed-rate mortgage, the monthly payment you owe to the lender has two parts: Principal is the money you borrowed. Each payment reduces the remaining balance a little. Interest is what the lender charges for the loan. It is calculated each month on the balance you still owe. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), only the princip...
How the calculators work
Every tool uses standard, published formulas and tells you exactly what it does and doesn’t include.
You enter your numbers
Each field is labeled and starts with an example value. Optional costs can be left blank.
Your browser does the math
Calculations use the standard fixed-rate amortization formula and run on your device. Nothing is sent or saved.
You see the assumptions
Results list what is included and excluded, so you can compare them with a lender’s Loan Estimate.
Our approach to accuracy and transparency
ClearPath Guides is an independent information site. We are not a lender, broker, or financial adviser.
Sourced guides
Articles cite official and authoritative sources such as the CFPB and HUD. See our editorial policy.
Private by design
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Estimates, not offers
Results are educational estimates. Lenders set actual rates and terms. Read the disclaimer.