Will my monthly payment really stay the same for 30 years?

The principal-and-interest part does, if you keep a fixed-rate loan. The other parts do not. Property tax and insurance are usually collected in escrow and both tend to rise over time, so the amount your servicer withdraws typically increases even though the loan payment never changes. HOA dues change too. That is why a payment quoted to you at closing is not a promise about what you will pay in year ten.

Mortgage Payment Calculator

Q: Do I have to pay PMI if my down payment is under 20%?

Usually yes. Private mortgage insurance is charged on conventional loans when the loan is more than 80% of the home's value, because the lender is taking more risk. It is typically about 0.5% of the loan per year, added to your monthly payment. This calculator charges it only when the down payment is under 20% of the price, and it stops it at the payment where the balance first reaches 80% of the price — never before, and never after.

Q: Why does almost all of my early payment go to interest?

Interest is charged on the balance you still owe, and at the start that balance is the whole loan. On a $320,000 loan at 6.7%, the first payment of $2,064.89 splits into $1,786.67 of interest and $278.22 of principal — 86.5% interest. Because the balance barely moves at first, the split improves slowly: interest and principal are not equal on a single payment until payment 237, nearly 20 years in. Only the principal part reduces what you owe.

Q: Why is my lender's payoff figure a few dollars different from this one?

Because lenders round the monthly payment to the nearest cent and then charge interest on the rounded balance each month, while this page keeps full precision internally and rounds only for display. Over 360 payments those fractions of a cent add up to a few dollars either way. A payoff statement also has to account for the per-diem interest between your last payment and the payoff date, which no monthly schedule can show. Treat the figure here as accurate to within a few dollars, not to the cent.

Q: Does the county tax rate apply to my purchase price forever?

No. This page applies the county's effective rate to the price you enter, which is a reasonable stand-in for assessed value on day one. In reality assessed values change, assessments are often a fraction of market value rather than all of it, and exemptions such as homestead or senior reductions vary by county. Local levies also reset every year. Use the result as a realistic starting estimate and check your county assessor for the number that will actually be billed.

Q: Is a 15-year mortgage always the cheaper choice?

It is always cheaper in total interest, because you borrow for half as long and pay a lower rate for it. Whether it is the better choice depends on the payment: the same $320,000 at 6.0% over 15 years costs $2,700.34 a month instead of $2,064.89, roughly $635 more every month for 180 months. If that fits your budget without straining it, the interest saved is large. If it does not, a 30-year loan with extra principal payments keeps the lower required payment while letting you attack the balance when you can.

What the monthly payment really is, what it includes, and what the loan costs in total — with a property-tax rate taken from your own county rather than a national average. Add taxes, insurance, HOA and PMI and see the full amortization schedule.

Live results — no Calculate button Runs in your browser Formula published below Updated September 2026

Your result

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Adjust the numbers below.

The purchase

Home price

Down payment

Down payment ($)

Enter the down payment as

The loan

Interest rate (annual, fixed)

Loan term in years

Taxes, insurance and dues

Property tax rate (% of value per year)

US county average — open the county picker below for your real rate.

Home insurance per year

HOA dues per month

Leave at 0 if there is no association.

Set tax rate and home price from your county — real Census data (loads 3,208 counties when you open this)

Your county

Picking a county also sets the home price to that county's median home value, so the numbers start from your market rather than a national average.

The effective rate is median real-estate taxes paid ÷ median home value, county by county, from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year 2023 estimates (tables B25103 and B25077). There is no statewide rate — property tax is levied by overlapping local jurisdictions, so the only useful unit is the county. Picking one overwrites the rate and price fields above, both of which you can still edit by hand.

What is inside the payment — every month, part by part

Only the principal-and-interest slice reduces your loan balance.

Principal paid vs interest paid — cumulative

Where the two lines sit relative to each other is the whole story of a mortgage.

Full amortization schedule

Every row is recomputed from your inputs. Balances come from the closed form used by the payment formula, so the loan clears exactly at the final payment. The Monthly / Annual toggle and the CSV download are part of the table. Each row is displayed to the cent, so adding a column up by hand can come out a few cents over or under the loan amount — that is rounding in the display, not in the schedule.

How this is calculated

Principal and interest is the standard amortizing-loan payment: the level monthly amount that clears the loan exactly over the term, with interest charged each month on the balance still outstanding.

M = P × r ÷ (1 − (1 + r)⁻ⁿ)

P — the loan amount, home price minus down payment.
r — the annual rate divided by 12. 6.7% → 0.00558333 per month.
n — the term in months. 30 years → 360.
Each period — interest = balance × r; principal = payment − interest; balance = balance − principal. The schedule repeats that for every month of the term.
At 0% — the formula divides by zero, so the payment is simply P ÷ n.

With a $320,000 loan at 6.7% over 30 years, M works out to $2,064.89 a month. Summed across the schedule, that repays $320,000 of principal and pays $423,360.23 of interest.

Where the property-tax figure comes from

effective county rate = median real-estate taxes paid ÷ median home value

Both inputs are county-level medians from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey 5-year 2023 estimates: table B25103 for median real-estate taxes paid and table B25077 for median home value. The dataset bundled with this page covers 3,208 counties, and the national average rate across all of them is 0.94%.

That rate is applied to the price you enter, as a stand-in for assessed value on day one. It is a starting estimate, not a bill: assessments, exemptions and local levies all move, and most assessors do not use full market value. Your county assessor has the real number.

How PMI is treated here

Charged only when the down payment is under 20% of the price — that is, when the loan starts above 80% loan-to-value. At 20% down this page charges nothing. Plenty of calculators apply PMI at 20% down, or apply it whenever there is a conventional loan at all. Both are wrong.
Rate — 0.5% of the loan per year, collected monthly. That is a realistic middle for a borrower with good credit; your lender's quote is the one that counts.
Drops off automatically at the first payment after which the balance is at or below 80% of the price. The month it stops is computed from the closed-form balance, not estimated.
Not included — FHA mortgage insurance premiums, which behave differently and last for the life of many FHA loans. Also not included: mortgage insurance required by some loan programs regardless of down payment.

What is and is not in the "total of all payments" figure

It is principal, interest, property tax, insurance, HOA dues and PMI, summed across the term, using today's tax rate, today's insurance premium and today's HOA dues. In reality tax and insurance usually rise, so the true lifetime figure will be higher. Closing costs, maintenance, and the per-diem interest a servicer collects at payoff are not included.

Interest is carried at full precision internally and rounded only for display. A lender that rounds the payment to the cent and then charges interest on the rounded balance will land a few dollars away from these totals over 30 years — a difference in rounding, not in mathematics. See the note below.

Why your lender's payoff number will differ by a few dollars. Every amortization table, including this one, is a model. Lenders round the monthly payment to the nearest cent, charge interest on the rounded balance each month, and then add per-diem interest from your last payment to the payoff date. Over 360 payments those fractions of a cent compound into a small difference — usually under about $10 by the end of a 30-year loan, and it can run either direction. Plan with this figure; settle with the payoff statement. No calculator, on this page or any other, can tell you the exact last dollar.

What a mortgage payment is really made of

Four or five separate things get bundled into the number you pay each month, and only one of them is the loan. Principal and interest is the mortgage itself. Property tax and homeowners insurance are usually collected by the servicer in an escrow account, then paid on your behalf when the bills come due — which is why the servicer can raise your monthly draw even though your loan payment never moves. HOA dues go to the association, not the lender. PMI is insurance that protects the lender, not you, and it exists only while the loan is more than 80% of the home's value.

That last part matters: when people say "my mortgage is $2,500 a month," most of them are describing an escrowed payment, not a loan payment. On the defaults in this page, the loan is $2,064.89 and the rest — $438.33 — is tax and insurance. Over a year that is $5,260 that never touches the balance.

There is no such thing as a state property tax rate

This is the single biggest thing wrong with how property tax gets presented online. You will find pages listing "the property tax rate in New Jersey: 2.21%" as if it were a number you could look up and multiply. It is not. Property tax is levied by overlapping local jurisdictions — the county, the city or township, the school district, and assorted special districts such as fire, library or water authorities. Each sets its own levy against the same property, and nobody at the state level sets the rate at all. The state figure is just the average of county figures, which is why it describes almost nobody.

The spread inside a single state is the proof. From this page's dataset, the county-level effective rates run:

New Jersey — 1.32% in Cape May County to 3.08% in Camden County, a 2.3× spread inside one small state.
Texas — 0.33% in Crockett County to 2.09% in El Paso County, over 6×.
Wisconsin — 0.80% in Vilas County to 3.64% in Menominee County, 4.5×.
Illinois — 0.82% in Pulaski County to 2.68% in Lake County, 3.2×.
New York — 0.69% in Kings County to 3.00% in Orleans County, 4.4×.

Nationwide the file runs from 0.08% to 3.64%, but the very bottom is small census areas with unusual tax structures, so the honest working range for places people actually live is roughly 0.3% to 3.6% — more than tenfold. A calculator that gives you one state number is telling you nothing about your house. That is why this page asks for a county, draws the rate from the Census medians for that county, prints the county's name next to the figure, and still lets you overwrite the rate by hand.

One more honest caveat: the rate here is median taxes paid divided by median home value, which is the standard way to compare places, not a millage rate on your specific parcel. Special assessments and homestead exemptions in your district can move your real bill by a few hundred dollars a year either way.

PMI, and exactly when it goes away

Private mortgage insurance is a monthly premium that protects the lender if you default. It is normally required on a conventional loan when the down payment is less than 20% of the price, because the lender's exposure is above 80% loan-to-value. It typically costs 0.3% to 1.5% of the loan per year depending on credit score and down payment; this page uses 0.5%.

Two things people get wrong. First, PMI is not charged at 20% down — a 20% down payment puts the loan at exactly 80% LTV, which is the threshold, and PMI should not appear at all. Second, PMI does not last the full term. It ends when the loan reaches 80% of the home's value, which happens on its own schedule, years earlier than the term ends.

A worked example. $400,000 price, 10% down, so a $360,000 loan at 6.7% fixed for 30 years. The payment is $2,323.00 and PMI adds $150.00 a month — 6.5% on top. The balance falls to 80% of $400,000 after payment 97 — 8 years and 1 month — after which PMI stops. Paid over those 97 months it costs $14,550, and dropping it is worth $150 a month, or $1,800 a year, for the remaining 22 years. Under the Homeowners Protection Act the servicer must terminate PMI automatically once the balance is scheduled to reach 78% of the original value, and you can request cancellation at 80% — so if you reach 80% and the charge is still there, ask, with the appraisal or the payment record in hand.

Extra principal payments move that date closer, for the obvious reason: you are lowering the balance faster. Run the numbers in the extra payment payoff calculator to see how much a few hundred dollars a month pulls the PMI drop-off date forward.

Why the first years are almost all interest

Interest is charged on the balance you still owe. At the start, that balance is the entire loan, so the interest charge is at its largest and the principal part of the payment is at its smallest. On the defaults here — $320,000 at 6.7% for 30 years — the first payment of $2,064.89 splits into $1,786.67 of interest and $278.22 of principal. Interest is 86.5% of the payment.

Across the whole first year you hand over $24,778.68 and only $3,443.13 of it — 13.9% — reduces the loan. The split improves slowly, because each month's principal payment only slightly reduces the balance that the next month's interest is charged on. Interest and principal do not even become equal on a single payment until payment 237, nearly twenty years in.

That is not a trick or a bad loan; it is what a level payment over a long term has to look like. It does explain two things people find surprising: why selling a house after three years can leave you owing almost what you borrowed, and why an extra payment made early is worth far more than the same amount paid in year twenty. The cumulative chart above shows the two lines and where they meet — and on a 30-year loan at today's rates, they may never meet inside the term at all.

What this page does not know

Your actual rate. 6.7% is a published average for a 30-year fixed loan, not a quote. Your credit score, points and lender decide the real number.
Escrow changes. Taxes and insurance rise; the loan payment does not. If you want to stress-test a payment, raise the tax rate or the premium and see what happens to the total.
Closing costs and points. Not modelled here. They are real money at closing but they do not change the monthly payment unless you finance them.
Your exact payoff. Off by a few dollars by construction, as described above.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to pay PMI if my down payment is under 20%?

Usually yes, on a conventional loan. It is typically about 0.5% of the loan per year, added to the monthly payment. This page charges it only when the down payment is under 20% of the price, and stops it at the payment where the balance first reaches 80% of the price. At exactly 20% down, the answer is no — and this page shows no PMI.

Why isn't there a state property tax rate?

Because property tax is levied by overlapping local jurisdictions — county, city or township, school district, and special districts — not by the state. Each sets its own levy, so the rate that applies to you is set at your address. A state rate is nothing but the average of its counties, and the spread inside a state is usually wider than the spread between states: 1.32% to 3.08% in New Jersey, 0.33% to 2.09% in Texas.

Why does almost all of my early payment go to interest?

Interest is charged on the outstanding balance, and early on that balance is the whole loan. On $320,000 at 6.7%, the first payment is $1,786.67 of interest against $278.22 of principal — 86.5% interest. The split does not reach 50/50 on a single payment until payment 237. Only the principal part reduces what you owe.

Will my payment really stay the same for 30 years?

The principal-and-interest part will, on a fixed-rate loan. The escrowed parts will not. Property tax and insurance are usually collected monthly and re-estimated every year, and both tend to rise, so the amount withdrawn from your account typically climbs while the loan payment stays put. HOA dues change too.

Why is my lender's payoff figure a few dollars different from this one?

Lenders round the payment to the cent and charge interest on the rounded balance; this page keeps full precision and rounds for display. Over 360 payments that is a few dollars either way. A payoff statement also includes per-diem interest up to the payoff date, which a monthly schedule cannot show. Use this as accurate to within a few dollars.

Does the county tax rate apply to my purchase price forever?

No. The effective rate is applied to the price here as a day-one proxy for assessed value. Assessments change, many jurisdictions assess below market value, exemptions vary by county and by owner, and levies are reset every year. Check your county assessor for the figure that will actually be billed.

Is a 15-year mortgage always the cheaper choice?

Cheaper in total interest, always, because you borrow for half as long and usually at a lower rate. Whether it is the better choice depends on the payment: $320,000 at 6.0% over 15 years is $2,700.34 a month against $2,064.89 — about $635 more, every month, for 15 years. If that fits comfortably, the interest saved is large. If it does not, take the 30-year and make extra principal payments when you can, then compare the two in the extra payment payoff calculator.