How To Calculate Home Loan Payments

Calculate Your Monthly Payment

Use our free mortgage payment calculator to find out how much you’ll pay each month:

Mortgage Calculator

• Paying a 25% higher down payment would save you $8,916.08 on interest charges
• Lowering the interest rate by 1% would save you $51,562.03
• Paying an additional $500 each month would reduce the loan length by 146 months

If you want to do the math by hand, you can calculate your monthly mortgage payment, not including taxes and insurance, using the following equation:

M = P /

P = principal loan amount

i = monthly interest rate

n = number of months required to repay the loan

Once you calculate M , you can add in the monthly property tax and homeowners insurance premium, if you have them. These are fixed costs that aren’t determined by how much you borrow from the bank, so they can easily be added to the monthly cost.

What Is My Loan Payment Formula

Now that you have identified the type of loan you have, the second step is plugging numbers into a loan payment formula based on your loan type.

If you have an amortized loan, calculating your loan payment can get a little hairy and potentially bring back not-so-fond memories of high school math, but stick with us and we’ll help you with the numbers.

Here’s an example: let’s say you get an auto loan for $10,000 at a 7.5% annual interest rate for 5 years after making a $1,000 down payment. To solve the equation, you’ll need to find the numbers for these values:

• A = Payment amount per period

• P = Initial principal or loan amount

• r = Interest rate per period

• n = Total number of payments or periods

The formula for calculating your monthly payment is:

A = P ^n) / ^n -1 )

When you plug in your numbers, it would shake out as this:

• P = $10,000

• r = 7.5% per year / 12 months = 0.625% per period

• n = 5 years x 12 months = 60 total periods

So, when we follow through on the arithmetic you find your monthly payment:

10,000 / – 1)

10,000 /

10,000

10,000 = $200.38

In this case, your monthly payment for your cars loan term would be $200.38.

If you have an interest-only loan, calculating the monthly payment is exponentially easier . Here is the formula the lender uses to calculate your monthly payment:

loan payment = loan balance x

In this case, your monthly interest-only payment for the loan above would be $62.50.

Typical Costs Included In A Mortgage Payment

• Principal: This is the amount you borrowed from the lender.
• Interest: This is what the lender charges you to lend you the money. Interest rates are expressed as an annual percentage.
• Property taxes: Local authorities assess an annual tax on your property. If you have an escrow account, you pay about one-twelfth of your annual tax bill with each monthly mortgage payment.
• Homeowners insurance: Your insurance policy can cover damage and financial losses from fire, storms, theft, a tree falling on your home and other hazards. If you live in a flood zone, youll have an additional policy, and if youre in Hurricane Alley or earthquake country, you might have a third insurance policy. As with property taxes, you pay one-twelfth of your annual insurance premium each month, and your lender or servicer pays the premium when it’s due.
• Mortgage insurance: If your down payment is less than 20 percent of the homes purchase price, youll probably be on the hook for mortgage insurance, which also is added to your monthly payment.

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How Often Can I Skip Mortgage Payments

RBC lets you make a mortgage prepayment that is up to the amount of your regular mortgage payment during your regular payment date. The minimum amount for Double-Up payments is $100, and goes up to 100% of your regular payment amount. The Double-Up payment is used to pay your mortgage principal balance.

Scotiabanks Match-a-Payment allows you to double your regular mortgage payment for any payment. You’ll also be able to increase your mortgage payment by up to 15% once per year.

You can choose to increase your regular TD mortgage payments by up to 100% once every calendar year, up until the increase is equivalent to 100% of your regular mortgage payment. This allows you to double your regular payments.

BMO allows you to increase your regular mortgage payments by up to 20% once per calendar year, or up to 10% for BMO Smart Fixed Mortgages.

You can double your mortgage payments or increase it up to 100% at any time with CIBC.

National Bank lets you make an additional payment on top of your regular payment, which can be up to 100% of your regular payment amount, on each of your regular payment dates.

Calculating Mortgage Payments Using A Spreadsheet Program

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Should I Pay Off My Loan Early

Whether you should pay off your loan early depends on your individual circumstances. Paying off your loan early can save you a lot of money in interest. In general, the longer your loan term, the more in interest youll pay. Suppose you get a $200,000 home loan with an interest rate of 4%. If you pay this off over 30 years, your payments, including interest, add up to $343,739. But if you got a 20-year mortgage, youd pay $290,871 over the life of the loan. Thats a difference of $52,868.

To pay off your loan early, consider making additional payments, such as biweekly payments instead of monthly, or payments that are larger than your required monthly payment. Ask your lender to apply the additional amount to your principal.

But before you do this, consider whether making extra principal payments fits within your budget or if itll stretch you thin. You might also want to consider using any extra money to build up an emergency fund or pay down higher interest rate debt first.

How Do You Calculate A Loan Payment

The first step to calculating your monthly payment actually involves no math at all – it’s identifying your loan type, which will determine your loan payment schedule. Are you taking out an interest-only loan or an amortized loan? Once you know, you’ll then be able to figure out the types of loan payment calculations you’ll need to make.

With interest-only loan options, you only pay interest for the first few years, and nothing on the principal balance – the loan itself. While this does mean a smaller monthly payment, eventually you’ll be required to pay off the full loan in a lump sum or with a higher monthly payment. Most people choose these types of loan options for their mortgage to buy a more expensive property, have more cash flexibility, and to keep overall costs low if finances are tight.

The other kind of loan is an amortized loan. These loan options include both the interest and principal balance over a set length of time . In other words, an amortized loan term requires the borrower to make scheduled, periodic payments that are applied to both the principal and the interest. Any extra payments made on this loan will go toward the principal balance. Good examples of an amortized loan are an auto loan, a personal loan, a student loan, and a traditional fixed-rate mortgage.

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Whether The Home Is Too Expensive

Another thing a mortgage calculator is very good for is determining how much house you can afford. This is based on factors like your income, credit score and your outstanding debt. Not only is the monthly payment important, but you should also be aware of how much you need to have for a down payment.

As important as it is to have this estimate, its also critical that you dont overspend on the house by not considering emergency funds and any other financial goals. You dont want to put yourself in a position where youre house poor and unable to afford retiring or going on vacation.

What Is A High

A mortgage with a down payment below 20% is known as ahigh-ratio mortgagemortgage. The term ratio refers to the size of your mortgage loan amount as a percentage of your total purchase price. All high-ratio mortgages require the purchase of CMHC insurance, since they generally carry a higher risk of default.

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How To Calculate Your Loan Cost

As a borrower, your loan cost primarily comes down to the loan amount you are seeking with determined interest. There are several other factors that should also be solidified to discover your overall loan cost. Payments toward the balance can be estimated using the Capital Farm Credit farm land loan calculator.

Follow these instructions to determine an estimated payment schedule and to understand the breakdown of how your payments are credited towards your loan:

• Insert your desired loan amount.
• Select the estimated interest rate percentage.
• Input your loan term .
• Determine your payment frequency .
• Select the amortization type for your loan or Fixed Principal

Interest may be the largest variable in your estimation, as rates fluctuate up and down, depending on market conditions, inflation, and a variety of other factors. You can select an estimation based on current rates to get a rough idea of how much total interest will be accrued over your payment cycles. This can help you determine the best plan for making actual payments.

*Note: The loan rate calculator is to be used for estimation purposes only and will never provide complete accuracy. Loans are subject to approval, terms of credit may vary, and the calculator is not to be used for any unintended purpose such as providing legal or investment advice.

Consider The Cost Of Property Taxes

A monthly mortgage payment will often include property taxes, which are collected by the lender and then put into a specific account, commonly called an escrow or impound account. At the end of the year, the taxes are paid to the government on the homeowners’ behalf.

How much you owe in property taxes will depend on local tax rates and the value of the home. Just like income taxes, the amount the lender estimates the homeowner will need to pay could be more or less than the actual amount owed, which could result in a bill or a refund come tax season.

You can typically find your property tax rate on your local government’s website.

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What Is Loan Amortization

Loan amortization is the process of making payments that gradually reduce the amount you owe on a loan. Each time you make a monthly payment on an amortizing loan, part of your payment is used to pay off some of the principal, or the amount you borrowed. This lowers the amount you still have to pay off. Some of your payment covers the interest youre charged on the loan. Paying interest doesnt cause the amount you owe to decrease.

Loan amortization matters because with an amortizing loan that has a fixed rate, the share of your payments that goes toward the principal changes over the course of the loan. When you start paying the loan back, a large part of each payment is used to cover interest, and your remaining balance goes down slowly. As your loan approaches maturity, a larger share of each payment goes to paying off the principal.

For example, you may want to keep amortization in mind when deciding whether to refinance a mortgage loan. If youre near the end of your loan term, your monthly mortgage payments build equity in your home quickly. Refinancing resets your mortgage amortization so that a large part of your payments once again goes toward interest, and the rate at which you build equity could slow.

Paying Your Mortgage Weekly Vs Monthly

There isn’t a large difference between paying your mortgage weekly or monthly, if we’re looking at non-accelerated weekly payments. That’s because the total amount paid per year is the exact same for both payment frequencies. You’ll just pay a smaller amount with a weekly payment, but you’ll be making more frequent payments. The real difference is when you choose accelerated weekly payments. Accelerated payments can shave years off of your amortization, and can save you thousands of dollars.

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When Mortgage Payments Start

The first mortgage payment is due one full month after the last day of the month in which the home purchase closed. Unlike rent, due on the first day of the month for that month, mortgage payments are paid in arrears, on the first day of the month but for the previous month.

Say a closing occurs on January 25. The closing costs will include the accrued interest until the end of January. The first full mortgage payment, which is for the month of February, is then due March 1.

As an example, lets assume you take an initial mortgage of $240,000, on a $300,000 purchase with a 20% down payment. Your monthly payment works out to $1,077.71 under a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage with a 3.5% interest rate. This calculation only includes principal and interest but does not include property taxes and insurance.

Your daily interest is $23.01. This is calculated by first multiplying the $240,000 loan by the 3.5% interest rate, then dividing by 365. If the mortgage closes on January 25, you owe $161.10 for the seven days of accrued interest for the remainder of the month. The next monthly payment, which is the full monthly payment of $1,077.71, is due on March 1 and covers the February mortgage payment.

Understanding Your Mortgage Payment

Monthly mortgage payment = Principal + Interest + Escrow Account Payment

Escrow account = Homeowners Insurance + Property Taxes + PMI

The lump sum due each month to your mortgage lender breaks down into several different items. Most homebuyers have an escrow account, which is the account your lender uses to pay your property tax bill and homeowners insurance. That means the bill you receive each month for your mortgage includes not only the principal and interest payment , but also property taxes, home insurance and, in some cases, private mortgage insurance.

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Do I Qualify For A Mortgage

A mortgage calculator can be helpful when estimating your home buying budget. But remember even if you can afford the monthly payments, you still need to qualify for a home loan.

To see if you qualify for a mortgage, a lender will check your:

• : Borrowers with higher credit scores tend to have more loan options. But mortgages are secured loans, which means you dont always need stellar credit to qualify. Some lenders can approve FHA loans for borrowers with FICO scores as low as 580
• Loan-to-value ratio : LTV measures your loan amount against your new homes value. For example, borrowing $200,000 to buy a $200,000 home equals 100% LTV. Lenders can offer VA or USDA loans at 100% LTV, but not everyone is eligible for these programs. FHA loans cant exceed 96.5% LTV, which leaves 3.5% as the minimum down payment. Conventional loans can reach 97% LTV, meaning they allow a 3% down payment
• Home appraisal: A home appraisal identifies the homes value. Lenders wont approve loan amounts that exceed the homes value, regardless of the homes listing price or agreed-upon purchase price
• Personal finances: Lenders must verify your income to make sure you can afford the loan payments. Theyll check W-2s, bank statements, and employment records. If youre self-employed, a lender will likely ask to see tax records

You can ask for a mortgage pre-approval or a prequalification to see your loan options and real budget based on your personal finances.

Add All Fixed Costs And Variables To Get Your Monthly Amount

Figuring out whether you can afford to buy a home requires a lot more than finding a home in a certain price range. Unless you have a very generous and wealthy relative who’s willing to give you the full price of your home and let you pay it back without interest, you can’t just divide the cost of your home by the number of months you plan to pay it back and get your loan payment. Interest can add tens of thousands of dollars to the total cost you repay, and in the early years of your loan, the majority of your payment will be interest.

Many other variables can influence your monthly mortgage payment, including the length of your loan, your local property tax rate and whether you have to pay private mortgage insurance. Here is a complete list of items that can influence how much your monthly mortgage payments will be:

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