US Mortgage Calculator (PITI)

A US mortgage payment is rarely just principal and interest. Lenders typically collect four components together every month — often summarized by the acronym PITI: Principal, Interest, Taxes, and Insurance — plus, when applicable, private mortgage insurance (PMI) and any homeowners association (HOA) dues. The loan-payment calculator on this site estimates only the first two (P&I); this calculator adds the rest so the number you see matches what actually leaves your bank account each month.

Escrow and property taxes

Property taxes and homeowners insurance are usually not paid directly by the borrower month to month. Instead, the lender collects roughly one-twelfth of the estimated annual bill along with each mortgage payment and holds it in an escrow (or impound) account, then pays the tax authority and insurer directly when the bills come due once or twice a year. This calculator reproduces that same one-twelfth split so the monthly figures line up with what a real escrow statement would show.

Property tax rates vary enormously across the United States — not just state to state but county to county and sometimes city to city, since local governments set their own rates and reassess home values on different schedules. A rate that looks reasonable in one county can be two or three times higher just across a state line. Because there's no single national rate this calculator could assume without being wrong for most users, property tax is always entered as a percentage of the home price; check your county assessor's site or a recent tax bill for an accurate figure rather than relying on a national average.

How PMI works and when it ends

Private mortgage insurance protects the lender, not the borrower, against default, and it's required whenever the down payment is below 20% of the home price — anything less means the lender is financing more than 80% of the home's value, which the industry treats as higher risk. PMI is typically priced as an annual percentage of the loan amount, commonly somewhere between 0.3% and 1.5% depending on the down payment size and the borrower's credit profile, and it's usually billed as a fixed monthly amount added on top of the regular mortgage payment.

Unlike most mortgage calculators, this one applies the actual PMI rules set by the US Homeowners Protection Act of 1998 — and there are three dates, not one. The lender must automatically terminate PMI once the balance is scheduled to reach 78% of the home's original value, and this date is fixed to the loan's initial amortization schedule irrespective of the outstanding balance — extra payments do not move it earlier. Separately, once the balance is scheduled to reach 80% of the original value, the borrower can request cancellation in writing, and because that request is based on actual payments, paying extra can make you eligible sooner. Finally, regardless of LTV, the law requires PMI to end no later than the midpoint of the loan's amortization period — month 181 on a standard 30-year loan — which mainly matters when a high rate or a very small down payment keeps the balance above 78% for that long. This calculator computes all three dates from your loan's regular schedule and marks the earlier of the automatic and midpoint dates as the guaranteed removal point.

"Original value" in these rules means the home's purchase price, or the appraised value at closing if that's lower — not its current market value. If the home appreciates after you buy it, that doesn't move the automatic 78% date earlier; getting an earlier removal through appreciation requires a separate process where the lender agrees to a new appraisal and the borrower formally requests cancellation, which isn't guaranteed and isn't modeled here. This calculator also doesn't cover the separate, stricter rules the law applies to loans classified as "high-risk mortgages" — most borrowers have no simple way to identify that status themselves, so check with your lender directly if you're unsure.

The 20% down payment myth

The 20% down payment threshold gets repeated so often that it can sound like a rule, but it's really just the line at which PMI switches on or off — there's no law requiring 20% down to get a mortgage, and many loan programs allow far less. Putting down less than 20% means a smaller cash outlay up front and a PMI cost that adds up over the years until it's cancelled; putting down 20% or more avoids PMI entirely but ties up more cash in the home immediately rather than, say, an emergency fund or other investments. Neither choice is automatically correct — it depends on how much cash is available and how it would otherwise be used.

What the loan term changes

Loan term affects every component of this calculator's total, not just principal and interest. A 15-year loan carries a meaningfully higher monthly principal-and-interest payment than a 30-year loan on the same amount and rate, but far less total interest over the life of the loan, and it also reaches the scheduled 78%/80% PMI thresholds much sooner because the balance is paid down faster. A 30-year loan lowers the monthly commitment and is the more common choice in the US, at the cost of paying substantially more interest and carrying PMI, if it applies, for a longer stretch of time.

What this estimate leaves out

This calculator estimates principal, interest, an assumed property tax rate, homeowners insurance, PMI, and HOA dues, but it does not include one-time closing costs, loan origination fees, title insurance, or the specific underwriting rules of any individual lender, and it assumes property tax and insurance costs stay flat over time when in reality both tend to rise. For the principal-and-interest math alone — for example to compare rates or terms without factoring in taxes and insurance — the loan-payment calculator on this site covers that narrower case; this one is the fuller estimate of what actually shows up in a monthly mortgage bill.