Mortgage Calculator & Learning Center

Start Here: Estimate Any Mortgage Payment

The calculator below answers the first question most buyers ask: what is the principal and interest payment on this loan amount, rate, and term? Enter your numbers and the payment updates instantly. Below that, you’ll find the full calculator toolkit by loan program and closing cost, plus a practical guide to the math behind the numbers.

How to Use the Calculators on This Page

Every calculator above uses the same core inputs: purchase price or loan amount, down payment, interest rate, and term. Results update the moment you change a value, so there is no submit button and no page reload. Start with the calculator that matches your loan program: FHA, conventional, VA, or USDA. If you already know your rate and want to see how a loan pays down over time, use the amortization calculator. If you are buying or selling and want to estimate closing table numbers, use the transfer tax, title insurance, and property tax proration calculators. None of these tools require an email address or account. Use the numbers however you need, and when you are ready, each result can connect you with a licensed loan officer for a real quote.

Understanding Your Mortgage Payment: What PITI Means

Almost every monthly mortgage payment is made up of four pieces, usually abbreviated PITI:

The FHA, conventional, VA, and USDA calculators above estimate full PITI payments. The simple payment calculator at the top of this page and the standalone Simple Payment Calculator show principal & interest only, so you can isolate how rate and term affect that one number before adding taxes and insurance. Most lenders require taxes and insurance to be escrowed, which means they are collected with your monthly payment and paid on your behalf. Some conventional borrowers with at least 20% down can request to waive escrows.

How Amortization Actually Works

A fixed-rate mortgage payment stays the same every month, but the mix of principal and interest inside that payment shifts constantly. Lenders use a standard formula to calculate the fixed monthly principal & interest payment:

M = P × [ r(1+r)ⁿ ] ÷ [ (1+r)ⁿ − 1 ]

Here, M is the monthly payment, P is the loan principal, r is your monthly interest rate (annual rate ÷ 12), and n is the total number of payments (30-year term = 360 payments). You do not need to run this by hand; the calculators do it for you. Understanding the formula does help explain why your loan balance drops so slowly in the early years. Early payments are mostly interest because interest is calculated on a much larger remaining balance. As the balance shrinks, more of each fixed payment goes toward principal.

Worked example: a $261,250 loan at 6.5% for 30 years produces a fixed principal & interest payment of roughly $1,652/month. On the first payment, about $1,415 goes to interest and only $237 reduces the loan balance. By year 15, that split has roughly flipped. In the final years, almost the entire payment is principal. The Mortgage Amortization Calculator charts this out year by year. It also shows why extra principal paid early in the loan saves more interest than the same extra payment made later.

Mortgage Insurance: PMI, FHA MIP, and the USDA Guarantee Fee

Any loan with less than 20% down typically has some form of mortgage insurance. The three major low-down-payment programs each calculate it differently, which is why calculator results can vary so much across loan types.

This is why a VA loan calculator result and an FHA loan calculator result can look so different even at the same loan amount: VA loans have zero recurring mortgage insurance, while FHA's monthly MIP is baked into the payment for most of the loan's life. Use the FHA calculator, conventional calculator, USDA calculator, and VA calculator side by side on the same purchase price to see exactly how much mortgage insurance changes your bottom line before you settle on a program.

Debt-to-Income Ratio: What Lenders Look At Beyond the Payment

Every calculator on this page tells you what a payment could look like. It cannot tell you whether a lender will approve it. That question depends heavily on your debt-to-income ratio (DTI), which is your total monthly debt payments divided by your gross (pre-tax) monthly income.

Lenders usually review two DTI numbers. The front-end ratio is your housing payment alone divided by income. The back-end ratio adds your other recurring debts, including car payments, student loans, minimum credit card payments, and child support. Most loan programs cap the back-end ratio somewhere between 43% and 50%, with some flexibility for strong credit or extra cash reserves.

Worked example: a household earning $90,000/year has gross monthly income of $7,500. A $2,072 total housing payment (principal, interest, PMI, taxes and insurance on the conventional example below) is a 27.6% front-end ratio. Add a $450 car payment, $300 in student loans, and $150 in minimum credit card payments, and total monthly debt rises to $2,972. That puts the back-end ratio at 39.6%, still under the 43–45% ceiling many conventional lenders use. Running your own payment, then adding your other monthly debts, is the fastest way to sanity-check affordability before you get pre-approved.

Worked Example: Comparing FHA vs. Conventional on the Same Michigan Home

Here is how the same $275,000 Grand Rapids-area home compares across two loan programs, using a 6.5% rate, $2,400/year in property taxes, and $1,200/year in homeowners insurance for both scenarios. Those are the default numbers built into the calculators above:

In this scenario, FHA gets you into the home with about $4,100 less cash up front, but the payment is roughly $59/month higher. FHA’s monthly MIP also usually does not cancel without a refinance, while conventional PMI can often be removed once you have enough equity. Neither program is automatically better. The right fit depends on your cash available today, your monthly budget, and your credit profile. FHA’s 580 minimum credit score for 3.5% down is more forgiving than many conventional guidelines. Run your own purchase price through the FHA calculator and conventional calculator to see how the comparison changes with your numbers, and read more about FHA loans in Michigan or conventional loans in Michigan.

Michigan Closing Cost Calculators: Transfer Tax, Title Insurance & Tax Proration

Payment calculators only tell part of the story. Buying or selling real estate in Michigan also comes with one-time closing costs and an ongoing property tax bill that can change after the sale. Four tools on this page are built around Michigan’s rules:

Transfer tax. When real estate changes hands in Michigan, the state charges $3.75 for every $500 of sale price, and the county charges an additional $0.55 per $500 (the seller typically pays both, unless negotiated otherwise). On a $275,000 sale, that works out to $2,062.50 in state tax plus $302.50 in county tax, for a total of $2,365. The Transfer Tax Calculator runs this math automatically for any sale price.

Title insurance. Lenders require a lender's title policy to protect against ownership disputes and liens that predate your purchase; buyers commonly also purchase an owner's policy to protect their own equity. Rates are set by the title agency and typically scale with loan amount (for the lender's policy) or sale price (for the owner's policy). The Title Insurance Calculator estimates both Basic and Expanded (Eagle) policy premiums based on current Michigan title agency rate tiers.

Property tax proration. Michigan property taxes are billed in advance (or arrears, depending on the jurisdiction and season), which means at closing, the buyer and seller typically split the tax bill based on how many days each of them will own the home during that tax period. Depending on whether the tax due date falls before or after your closing date, you'll either owe the seller a prorated share or receive a credit from them. The Property Tax Proration Calculator calculates this split automatically from your closing date, tax due date, and annual tax bill.

Ongoing property tax after the sale. The tax bill on the listing sheet is almost never what you’ll actually pay once you own the home. Michigan’s Proposal A caps how fast a property’s taxable value can grow year to year, but that cap resets ("uncaps") to the State Equalized Value the year after a sale. The Property Tax Calculator estimates that post-uncap annual bill, including the homestead exemption and a 5-year growth projection, so you can budget for your likely number instead of the seller’s old bill.

Which Calculator Matches Your Loan Program?

If you're not sure where to start, match your situation to a calculator and a program page:

• Putting down less than 5% with a lower credit score: the FHA calculator and FHA loan programs.
• 20% down or strong credit, want to avoid MIP for life: the conventional calculator and conventional loan programs.
• Active duty, veteran, or eligible surviving spouse: the VA calculator and VA loan programs.
• Buying in an eligible rural area with $0 down: the USDA calculator and USDA loan programs.
• Tapping home equity or lowering an existing payment: the payment calculator and cash-out refinance or refinance programs.
• Borrowing above conforming loan limits: the general calculator and jumbo loan programs.
• First time buying a home: start with the full toolkit above and read our first-time home buyer programs guide.