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Explore a future homeownership budget

Mortgage and escrow calculator for renters

Thinking about buying a home? See how a loan payment, property taxes, insurance, and other ownership costs fit together before comparing them with rent.

See the monthly pieces of a home purchase

Enter your own figures for a fixed-rate, fully amortizing mortgage. The calculator separates principal and interest, a monthly tax and property-insurance estimate, mortgage insurance, HOA dues, and optional maintenance savings. No email address or account is required.

This is a budgeting worksheet, not a mortgage offer, insurance quote, affordability approval, or recommendation to buy. It does not fetch rates or predict future costs. For the wider comparison, read renting versus buying: the housing costs to compare.

Enter numbers without commas or currency signs. Dollar fields accept up to two decimal places. Required fields start blank. Optional fields left blank are not included in the totals; a blank does not establish that no cost applies. Enter 0 only when you deliberately want a zero-cost assumption.

1. Purchase and loan
Enter the purchase price.
Enter dollars, not a percentage. It must be less than the home price; enter 0 only for a scenario with no down payment.
Use the loan interest rate, not APR. Enter a percentage with up to four decimal places. No market rate is supplied.
Choose the fixed repayment term for this scenario. Adjustable-rate, interest-only, balloon, and additional-payment scenarios are not modeled.
2. Taxes and insurance
Use a researched estimate for this purchase. A seller's tax bill may not reflect your bill.
Use an annual premium estimate for the property and coverage. Enter 0 only if you deliberately want a scenario excluding that cost.
Separate annual property-insurance premiums, if relevant. Do not duplicate insurance already counted above.
Use the lender's quoted monthly amount, if applicable. This protects the lender and is distinct from homeowners insurance.
3. Other ownership costs
Convert quarterly or annual dues to a monthly amount. Kept separate from lender escrow in this worksheet.
Your planned savings for repairs and upkeep, not a prediction of repair costs or a lender escrow charge.
4. Optional rental comparison
Add your rent for a limited monthly comparison. Leave all three rental fields blank to skip.
Divide an annual premium by 12 if needed. If blank, this cost is not included in the rental comparison.
Add recurring required charges that are separate from your rent. Avoid counting insurance or a charge already included in rent twice. Exclude one-time move-in costs.

JavaScript is needed to calculate. The explanation and manual planning steps below remain available.

Entries stay in this page's memory. They are not sent to us, placed in a URL, or saved to browser storage by this tool. A download or printout contains your amounts. Save it somewhere you trust. Use Clear all figures to remove visible entries when finished. A fresh page load starts blank; a browser may retain a page in its back-navigation memory. Clearing this tool does not remove a saved file or printout.

What does the escrow estimate mean?

A mortgage escrow account commonly holds money for property taxes and insurance bills. Whether one is required, which bills it covers, and how much is collected depend on the loan and lender. If you pay those bills directly, they still belong in your housing budget.

This worksheet uses annual property taxes plus annual homeowners insurance plus any separate property-insurance premium you enter, divided by 12. It does not calculate a lender's escrow cushion, a shortage repayment, the initial escrow deposit at closing, or changes in bill timing. Ask the lender for its actual projected payment and escrow analysis. A fixed loan interest rate does not keep taxes or insurance premiums fixed.

Mortgage insurance is a separate line because it is different from insurance protecting the home. This tool neither decides whether you need it nor estimates when it ends. Confirm its amount, duration, and collection method with the lender. HOA dues and maintenance savings are separate from the lender escrow estimate here. Your actual loan documents identify what is escrowed and what you pay yourself.

Where should you get the inputs?

  • Use the purchase price and the down payment you are evaluating. The estimated loan is price minus down payment. Financed fees, secondary loans, and other adjustments are not included.
  • Use the annual loan interest rate from the lender's loan terms. APR includes other borrowing costs and is not the rate used for this payment calculation.
  • Research the tax treatment for the prospective purchase with the relevant tax authority. Confirm exemptions, assessments, and whether a purchase can change the taxable amount.
  • Request a property-specific insurance estimate. Check which separate coverage may be needed, then avoid counting the same premium twice.
  • Obtain HOA dues and any known special assessments from the actual association documents. This tool models recurring dues only; budget special assessments separately.
  • Choose a maintenance savings amount that reflects your own planning. A smooth monthly reserve does not mean repair bills will arrive evenly or that the reserve will be sufficient.

How the loan payment is calculated

Let L be the estimated loan amount, r the annual interest percentage divided by 1,200, and n the selected years multiplied by 12. The monthly principal-and-interest payment is L × r ÷ [1 − (1 + r)−n]. At an interest rate of zero, it is L ÷ n. The calculation assumes equal monthly payments on a fully amortizing fixed-rate loan, with no extra payments.

The loan, tax, and insurance planning subtotal adds principal and interest, the monthly tax and property-insurance estimate, and entered mortgage insurance. The monthly payment budget adds entered HOA dues. The broader budget then adds your maintenance reserve. These labels describe this worksheet's arithmetic; they do not replace the lender's definitions or disclosures.

Compare carefully with your rental budget

The optional comparison subtracts the rent, renters insurance, and required recurring rental fees you enter from the broader ownership budget. Add recurring fees separately only when they are not already part of your rent or insurance amount. A positive difference means the selected ownership outlays are higher. A negative difference means they are lower. Either result is incomplete without the costs and tradeoffs omitted above. A principal repayment builds ownership equity, and a maintenance reserve is savings until used; neither is equivalent to rent expense.

Keep your current coverage planning separate from this exercise. Use the renters insurance cost guide to understand premium comparisons and the renters quote worksheet to compare policy terms. The renters insurance checklist and belongings inventory calculator can help organize your possessions while you rent and prepare for a future move. Do not cancel a current policy based on this calculator.

Sources and References