How mortgage payments work
What goes into a monthly mortgage payment, how the fixed principal and interest amount is set, and why early payments are mostly interest.
8 min readMortgage
Topic
Mortgages guides
How a fixed-rate mortgage payment is built, what PMI and the down payment do to it, and how amortization spreads interest over the term.
Start with how a payment is built, then follow the pieces that change it: the down payment, private mortgage insurance and the way amortization tilts early payments toward interest. Every guide ends with numbers you can try in the mortgage calculator.
Guides
Principal vs. interest: where your payment goes
How a fixed mortgage payment splits between principal and interest, why the split shifts over time, and how extra payments or a shorter term change the total.
8 min readMortgage
What is PMI and when does it go away?
Private mortgage insurance explained: who it protects, the 20 percent down payment threshold, what it typically costs, and when it ends under federal rules.
8 min readMortgage
Down payments explained
How a down payment sets your loan amount and LTV, what it does to your monthly payment, PMI and total interest, and the trade-off with cash reserves.
8 min readMortgage
What is amortization?
How an amortization schedule splits each mortgage payment between interest and principal, why the last payment differs, and how extra payments shorten it.
8 min readMortgage
A plain-language mortgage guide
How a fixed-rate mortgage works, what goes into the full monthly payment, and how term, rate, down payment and extra principal change the cost.
7 min readMortgage
Calculators for this topic
Mortgage
Estimate a monthly mortgage payment with taxes, insurance, PMI and HOA dues, plus the total interest and payoff date for a fixed-rate loan.
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