Monthly Payment by Home Price

Enter a home price, down payment, rate and state to see the complete monthly payment — principal and interest, property tax, insurance, PMI and HOA — plus the loan amount, total interest, the income it takes and the cash you need to close.

The headline figure is the whole monthly payment, not just the loan: principal and interest from the amortisation formula, property tax at your state’s effective rate, the state’s average insurance premium, PMI if you put down less than 20%, and HOA dues if you enter them. The bars show how the payment splits. Below the payment you get the loan amount, the interest you will pay over the term, the household income the payment implies under the 28% rule, and the cash to close (down payment plus closing costs at about 3%). Use the slider for a quick sweep from $100k to $1.5M, or type any price.

How much is the monthly payment on a $300k mortgage?

A $300,000 mortgage at 6.25% over 30 years costs $1,847 a month in principal and interest. A $300,000 house with 20% down is a $240,000 loan: $1,478 in principal and interest, plus about $245 of property tax and $131 of insurance at U.S. averages, for a total of $1,853. With 10% down the total is $2,173 because the loan is bigger and PMI adds $135.

Two numbers people mix up: the payment on a mortgage of a given size and the payment on a house of that price. A $200k loan is $1,231 a month; a $400k loan is $2,463; a $500k loan is $3,079. A $400k house with 20% down is a $320k loan — $1,970 in principal and interest and about $2,427 all in. Every figure on this page assumes 6.25%; rates move every day, so put your quoted rate in the calculator.

Monthly payment by home price, $150k to $1M

The table runs the calculator at the default 6.25% over 30 years with U.S.-average property tax (0.98% of value) and insurance ($1,569 a year). Read across for your price: principal and interest first, then the full payment with tax and insurance, at 20% and at 10% down (the 10% column includes PMI). The last column is the household income the 28% rule implies with 20% down.

The payment is almost linear in price, so you can interpolate: at 20% down, every extra $10,000 of price adds about $57 a month. That is the useful mental number when you are deciding whether to stretch for the house that is $25k dearer. To see what each price actually buys, the home-values pages list median values by state, county and ZIP.

How the rate changes the payment on a $300k and $400k home

Rate is the input you control least and that moves the payment most. On a $400,000 house with 20% down, going from 5% to 8% raises the principal-and-interest payment from $1,718 to $2,348 — 37% more for the same house — and the lifetime interest from $298,419 to $525,297.

Rule of thumb from the table: at these price levels each quarter-point of rate is worth about $50 a month on a $300k loan, and a full point is about $200. That is the yardstick for paying discount points (one point costs 1% of the loan and typically lowers the rate by about a quarter-point — a break-even of roughly five years), for a seller-paid rate buy-down, and for deciding whether to refinance later. Run the mortgage calculator for the amortisation schedule and extra-payment payoff.

Income needed for a $300k, $400k or $500k house

Lenders judge the payment against gross income. Under the conservative 28% housing ratio, a $400k house with 20% down (PITI $2,427) needs about $104,031 a year; a $500k house needs $128,637. Stretch to a 36% ratio, which many conventional lenders allow, and those become $80,913 and $100,051. A $500,000 mortgage (a $625k house at 20% down) needs about $159,396 at 28%.

Existing debts cut into the second ratio: housing plus all debt payments must stay under 36% (45% on a stretched conventional loan, 43% FHA). The how much house can I afford by salary page solves the problem from the income side, with your debts and state included, and lists where the resulting budget buys the median home.

15-year vs. 30-year: payment and total interest

A 15-year loan at the same rate costs about 39% more per month but cuts total interest by roughly 55%. In practice 15-year rates run about half a point below 30-year rates, which makes the gap in interest even wider. The table holds the rate at 6.25% for a like-for-like view.

Decision rule: take the 30-year if the 15-year payment would push your housing ratio past 28% or leave you unable to save; you can always prepay a 30-year loan on a 15-year schedule, but you cannot shrink a 15-year payment in a bad year. Take the 15-year if the payment fits comfortably and you value the guaranteed interest saving over flexibility.

Down payment on a $300k or $500k house: 3%, 5%, 10% or 20%

The minimum down payment is 3% on conventional loans (Fannie Mae HomeReady, Freddie Mac Home Possible and standard 97% LTV programs), 3.5% on FHA and 0% on VA and USDA loans. On a $300,000 house that is $9,000 at 3%, $15,000 at 5%, $30,000 at 10% and $60,000 at 20%; on a $500,000 house it is $15,000, $25,000, $50,000 and $100,000. The trade-off is PMI and a bigger payment.

On a $500k house the same spread runs from $3,767 a month at 3% down to $3,002 at 20% — the extra $85,000 of cash saves $766 a month, of which $243 is PMI. How to remove PMI: on a conventional loan it is cancelled automatically when the balance reaches 78% of the original price on schedule, and you can request cancellation at 80% (or sooner with a new appraisal showing 20% equity after improvements or appreciation). Check your equity position with the home equity calculator.

Property tax and insurance by state: the part of the payment that varies most

Principal and interest are the same in every state for the same loan; tax and insurance are not. On a $400,000 home, the two together range from about $209 a month in Hawaii to $862 in New Jersey — a difference bigger than a quarter-point of rate.

Both items are collected monthly into escrow and re-estimated every year, which is why a fixed-rate payment still changes. When you compare two listings, run both through the calculator with the right state — and for a specific county, take the rate from the property-tax page — before you decide which is cheaper.

Closing costs and cash to close

The cash you need on the day is the down payment plus closing costs, which typically run 2–5% of the price for a buyer: lender fees, title insurance, appraisal, recording, and the prepaid items the lender collects up front (a year of insurance, a few months of property tax and interest to the end of the month). The calculator uses 3%. On a $400k house with 10% down, that is $40,000 down plus about $12,000 of costs — $52,000 in cash, not $40,000.

• Ask the seller for a credit: concessions of 3–6% of the price are allowed on most loans and are easier to negotiate than a price cut of the same size.
• Compare Loan Estimates from at least two lenders; origination and title charges vary by thousands.
• Time the closing for the end of the month to minimise prepaid interest.

The closing cost and sale proceeds calculator itemises both the buyer’s and the seller’s side by state, and the average cost of a house page shows what the median home costs where you are looking.