Figure Out Your Monthly Payment

Before house hunting, determine how much of a mortgage you can comfortably afford. “Comfortably” means you can pay your mortgage each month and still have money for living expenses, savings, and quality-of-life niceties. In other words, you don’t want a mortgage payment that forces you to “squeak by” each month.

To determine your mortgage comfort-zone, you need three things: a budget, a price and a mortgage calculator. For the price, just start with the cost of a house you think you might be interested in buying.

At first, don’t worry about whether the price is too high — you’ll find that out soon enough when you run the numbers.

Complete the fields below and click Calculate Now. To view the results of each calculation, click on the various tabs.  To email yourself a copy of the results, click the Receive this Detailed Analysis link.