Mortgage — Home Buying & Homeowner Calculators
Focused on the biggest purchase most people make — monthly payments, affordability, refinancing, and payoff strategy. Five calculators covering every stage from shopping for a home to owning it outright.
A mortgage is the largest, longest financial commitment most people take on, and the math behind it — amortization, escrow, points, refinancing — is rarely intuitive. The Mortgage category covers five calculators spanning the full homeownership timeline, from deciding whether to buy at all to paying the loan off early.
The core Mortgage Calculator computes your monthly payment, total interest, and a full amortization schedule based on loan amount, rate, and term — the starting point for evaluating any home purchase. Before you get that far, though, the Rent vs Buy calculator compares the long-term cost of renting against buying in your specific market, accounting for opportunity cost, appreciation assumptions, and closing costs on both sides.
The Home Affordability calculator works backward from your income and existing debt to estimate a realistic price range, using standard debt-to-income thresholds lenders actually apply — useful for narrowing a search before you fall in love with a home outside your budget.
Once you own a home, two calculators help you optimize the loan itself. Refinance estimates your savings and break-even point from refinancing an existing mortgage at a new rate, factoring in closing costs so you can see whether it's actually worth it given how long you plan to stay. Mortgage Payoff shows the time and interest saved from making extra principal payments — even a modest additional monthly payment can cut years off a 30-year loan.