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Mortgage Calculator — Your Real Monthly Payment
Principal, interest, taxes, insurance — the full monthly number, plus the 30-year shape of where every payment goes.
- Principal & interest — $2,023
- Property tax — $350
- Insurance — $150
Principal overtakes interest around Dec 2045 (year 20).
How it works
The payment a listing site quotes you is usually just principal and interest. The payment that actually leaves your account every month is PITI — principal, interest, property taxes, and homeowners insurance — because most lenders collect the tax and insurance in the same monthly bill and hold them in escrow. On a $400,000 home the difference isn't small: the P&I is $2,023, but the number your budget has to absorb is $2,523. The donut above shows the split.
The second chart shows something less obvious: where each year's payments actually go. A mortgage payment is fixed, but its composition isn't — early on, most of each check is interest on a big balance, and the principal share grows slowly as the balance shrinks. At the defaults, principal doesn't overtake interest until around Dec 2045 — year 20 of 30 — and the interest over the whole loan comes to $408,142, more than the $320,000 you borrowed. That's not a scandal; it's what 6.5% for 30 years costs. The chips above show how a 15- or 20-year term reshapes it.
ClariFi has no mortgage product — it tracks the one you have: the loan as a liability, the home as an asset, and the equity gap between them closing in your daily net worth.
The formula
loan = price − down = $400,000 − $80,000 = $320,000 r = 6.50% ÷ 12 per month n = 30 × 12 = 360 payments P&I = loan × r ÷ (1 − (1 + r)⁻ⁿ) ≈ $2,023 /mo PITI = P&I + tax + insurance = $2,023 + $350 + $150 = $2,523 /mo total interest = 360 × P&I − loan ≈ $408,142
Honest assumptions
- PITI means principal + interest + property tax + homeowners insurance — the four pieces most lenders roll into one monthly bill via escrow.
- The escrow defaults are flat estimates: $350/mo is roughly a 1.05%/yr property-tax rate and $150/mo roughly 0.45%/yr insurance on a $400K home. Real rates vary enormously by state and insurer — type in yours.
- No PMI, no HOA dues, no rate changes — this models a fixed rate held for the full term, with the default sitting at exactly 20% down.
- No tax modeling. Mortgage-interest deductions are tempting to include and different for everyone, so this page leaves them out entirely.
- This page is arithmetic, not underwriting. The 6.5% default is an example, not an offer — your rate depends on credit, points, and the week you lock.
Questions people ask
What's actually in a monthly mortgage payment?
Four things, usually: principal (paying down the loan), interest (the lender's cut), property taxes, and homeowners insurance — PITI. The tax and insurance are typically collected monthly into an escrow account and paid out by the servicer when the bills come due. Some homes add more on top: PMI if you put less than 20% down, and HOA or condo dues, which never go through the lender at all.
How much does 1% of interest rate change the payment?
More than most people expect. On the default $320,000 loan over 30 years, the P&I is about $1,817 at 5.5%, $2,023 at 6.5%, and $2,237 at 7.5% — roughly $200 a month per point, which compounds into tens of thousands over the life of the loan. Type a different rate into the field above and watch the total-interest number move.
Is a 15-year mortgage worth it?
It's a trade between monthly flexibility and total cost. At 6.5%, the default loan costs about $2,788 a month of P&I over 15 years instead of $2,023 over 30 — but total interest drops from $408,142 to roughly $182,000, less than half. The 15-year payment is mandatory every month, though; a 30-year with voluntary extra principal payments buys similar savings with an escape hatch. Tap the term chips above to compare.
What is PMI, and why isn't it in this calculator?
PMI — private mortgage insurance — is a monthly premium lenders typically require when the down payment is under 20%, usually somewhere between 0.3% and 1.5% of the loan per year until you reach about 20% equity. The exact price depends on your credit score and loan-to-value ratio, so any single number here would be a guess. This page's default sits at exactly 20% down, where PMI drops out of the picture; if you're putting down less, budget for it on top of the PITI shown.
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ClariFi makes tools, not advice. Nothing on this page is a recommendation to buy, sell, or sign anything.
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