How To Use A Mortgage Calculator To Pay Off Your Loan Faster

You can quickly get an idea of your total mortgage payment by using a home loan estimator. This will include the debt and interest, as well as PMI, property taxes, home insurance, and HOA fees. Type in the home's price and down payment amount to get an estimate of your monthly mortgage payment, along with a plan and list of all the payments you will need to make. Change the loan terms so that they work better for you.

How To Calculate Mortgage Payments?

You can change the terms of your mortgage on Zillow's mortgage tool, and it will make assumptions in areas you might not know much about yet. The home loan tool is easy to use because of these autofill features, which can be changed at any time.

Don't forget that your monthly house payment covers more than just paying back the loan you used to buy the house. The "principal" is the loan amount that you have to pay back, and the interest is the fee that the lender charges you for giving them the money.

Most people send their monthly mortgage payments to their lender along with other costs, like fees and homeowner's insurance. If you have an escrow account, you pay a set amount each month toward these extra costs as part of your mortgage payment, which also includes the principal and interest.

Most of the time, your mortgage provider will keep the money in the trust account until your tax and insurance bills are due and then pay them for you. The rates for private mortgage insurance (PMI) or homeowner's association dues (HOA) may be added to your total mortgage payment if your loan needs them.

Home Price

You may have paid a certain amount for a home, or you may be able to pay that much for a first house.

Down Payment

As a down payment, most home loans need at least 3% of the home's price. VA loans and some USDA loans let you put down no money at all. It's not true that you need a 20% down payment to get a loan but keep in mind that the more you put down, the less your monthly payment will be. If you put down 20%, you won't have to pay private mortgage insurance on your loan either. Zillow has a tool that can help you find down payment aid funds and programs that you might be able to use.

Loan Program

Your interest rate and total monthly payments may change depending on the type of loan you take out. In the tool, you can pick from 30-year fixed, 15-year fixed, and 5-year ARM loan situations to see how the monthly payments change for each loan term. Find out more about the different kinds of loans.

Interest Rate

The amount you pay your landlord each year to borrow money is called mortgage interest. It is shown as a percentage rate. The current average interest rate is filled in automatically by the tool.

PMI

Private mortgage insurance (PMI) is based on how much of a down payment you make and your credit score. Lenders need protection on their investment if the loan amount is more than 80% of the home's price. The regular cost of this adds to your mortgage payment.

Property Taxes

Your projected yearly property tax is based on how much you paid for the house. The sum is split into 12 months and added to each mortgage payment due each month. If you know the exact amount of taxes, add it to the total for the year.

Home Insurance

The cost of homeowner's insurance is based on the value of the home and is shown as a yearly payment. To figure out your new monthly mortgage payment, the tool divides that amount by 12 months. The average yearly payment is less than 1% of the home's value. It protects you as the owner against risks, loss, and other things that could go wrong.

HOA Dues

In some projects and apartment or condo communities, homeowners pay Homeowners Association (HOA) fees every month to cover things like upkeep, insurance, and extras like pools and playgrounds. Include your monthly HOA fees if you have them. You can leave the field blank if there are no HOA fees.

Mortgage Payment Equation

Principal + Interest + Mortgage Insurance (if applicable) + Escrow (if applicable) = Total monthly payment

The usual way to figure out a weekly mortgage payment is to:

• Principal: The volume of money you received.
• Interest: The fee for borrowing money.
• Mortgage insurance: Required coverage to safeguard your lender's investment of 80% or more of the home's worth.
• Escrow: The monthly payment for property taxes, HOA dues, and homeowner's insurance.
• Payments: To find out how many payments you have to make, multiply the number of years on your loan by twelve months. There are 360 payments over 30 years (30 years x 12 months = 360 payments).

Start Your Home Purchasing Research With A Mortgage Calculator.

A mortgage payment calculator is a useful real estate tool that can do more than just help you guess how much your monthly payments will be. You can use our mortgage tool in these other ways as well:

1. Assess Down Payment Scenarios

Change the amount of your down payment to see how it changes your monthly payment. That is, would it be better to have more saved up after buying the house? Can you stay away from PMI? Compare realistic monthly payments beyond just debt and interest.

2. Calculate Mortgage Rates

Change the interest rate to see what happens when you make what seem like small changes to the rate. Rates can change every day, so think about what will happen if you wait to improve your credit score in order to possibly get a lower interest rate. Like our repayment tool, clicking "Schedule" will bring up a live graph that shows how long it will take you to pay off your interest.

3. Evaluate Affordability

Fine-tune your sources to measure your readiness. You can use our budget tool to find out more about your income, bills, and payments.

4. Sample Loan Programs

Change the loan program to see how the monthly payments change for each one.