Mortgage Payment Calculator
Understanding Your Mortgage Payment
Purchasing a home is one of the largest financial commitments most people make. Understanding how your mortgage payment is calculated is crucial for budgeting and financial planning. This calculator helps demystify the process by estimating your monthly principal and interest payment based on the loan amount, interest rate, and loan term.
Key Components of a Mortgage Payment
- Principal: This is the actual amount of money you borrowed to buy your home. Each monthly payment includes a portion that goes towards reducing this principal balance.
- Interest: This is the cost of borrowing the money. The interest rate is typically expressed as an annual percentage, but for calculating monthly payments, it's converted to a monthly rate.
- Loan Term: This is the total duration over which you agree to repay the loan, usually expressed in years (e.g., 15, 30 years). A longer loan term means lower monthly payments but more interest paid over the life of the loan.
How the Mortgage Payment is Calculated
The standard formula used to calculate a fixed-rate mortgage payment is based on the principal loan amount, the monthly interest rate, and the total number of payments (loan term in months). The formula is:
M = P [ i(1 + i)^n ] / [ (1 + i)^n – 1]
Where:
- M represents the total monthly mortgage payment.
- P is the principal loan amount (the amount you borrowed).
- i is your monthly interest rate (annual rate divided by 12, then divided by 100 to convert percentage to decimal).
- n is the total number of payments over the loan's lifetime (loan term in years multiplied by 12).
Our calculator takes your inputs and applies this formula to give you an estimated monthly payment. Note that this calculation typically only includes principal and interest (P&I). Your actual total monthly housing expense may also include property taxes, homeowner's insurance, and potentially Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) or Homeowner Association (HOA) fees, which are often bundled into an escrow payment.
Example Calculation
Let's consider an example:
- Loan Amount (P): $300,000
- Annual Interest Rate: 6.5%
- Loan Term: 30 years
First, we convert the annual rate to a monthly rate: 6.5% / 12 months / 100 = 0.00541667.
Next, we convert the loan term to months: 30 years * 12 months/year = 360 months.
Using the formula, the estimated monthly payment would be approximately $1,896.20. This calculation helps illustrate how these figures combine to determine your regular mortgage obligation.
Use our calculator above to see how different loan amounts, interest rates, and terms could affect your monthly payments.