Mortgage Calculator: How Much Can You Afford?

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A mortgage calculator is a great tool to use when you begin exploring your home-buying options. It can give you a realistic idea of what you can expect to pay each month and help you compare different types of mortgages side by side.

How Much House Can I Afford? | Calculator | Money

In this article, we'll give you a step-by-step guide on how to use a mortgage calculator so that you can make informed decisions about the best loan options for your situation.

 

How to Use a Mortgage Calculator

 

A mortgage calculator is a simple online tool that allows you to input information about your income, debts, and other financial factors in order to estimate your monthly mortgage payment.

Here's how to use one:

 

  1. Enter your gross monthly income. This is the amount of money you bring in each month before taxes, and other deductions are taken out. If you are married or have a co-borrower, be sure to include their income as well.

 

  1. Enter your current monthly debt payments. This includes things like auto loans, credit card payments, student loans, and any other payments that show up on your credit report. Again, if you have a co-borrower, be sure to include their debts as well. Thus, look at mortgage rates tangerine.

 

  1. Enter the loan amount, interest rate, and term length. The loan amount is the total price of the home minus any down payment or trade-in equity. The interest rate is the annual percentage rate (APR) of the loan and will affect your monthly payment amount.

 

The term length is the number of years over which you will make payments on the loan; common terms are 15 years and 30 years.

 

  1. Click "calculate" and review your results! The calculator will estimate your monthly mortgage payment based on the information you provided. If you want to see how different interest rates or term lengths would affect your payment amount, simply change those inputs and click "calculate" again.

 

  1. Compare different loan options side by side. Once you've determined how much house you can afford and what kind of monthly payment you're comfortable making, it's time to start shopping around for loans.

 

Use the mortgage calculator to compare different loan programs side by side so that you can find the one that's right for you!

 

For example, let's say that you're looking at two $250,000 loans—one with a 4% interest rate and one with a 5% interest rate—and both have 30-year terms.

 

When we input these numbers into the calculator, we see that the monthly payment for the 4% loan would be $1199 while the monthly payment for the 5% loan would be $1292—a difference of $93 per month!

 

Over the life of the loan, this difference would add up to more than $33,000! Obviously, then, it pays to shop around for loans with competitive interest rates so that you can keep more money in your pocket each month (and over the life of the loan).

 

A mortgage calculator is a handy online tool that can help simplify one of the most daunting tasks of buying a home: securing financing.

 

By entering some basic information about yourself, your income, debts, and desired loan parameters into a mortgage calculator, you can get an estimate of what your monthly payments might look like and compare different types of loans side by side.

 

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