How Much Would My Mortgage Be on a $200,000 Home?

Given the ever-changing mortgage interest rates, we thought it would be interesting to find out how much the monthly mortgage payment would be on a $200,000 home. The precise amount would depend on the buyer's down payment, how much they pay for homeowners insurance, and the rate of property tax they're responsible for. To make it a bit clearer, we've broken our calculations down into tables.

Principal and interest only

When you take out a mortgage, your monthly payment consists of repaying more than the principal (the amount you borrowed) and interest (the rate you're paying to borrow the money). Typically, your payment also includes funds that go into an escrow account. In short, an escrow account holds the money that will be used to pay property taxes and homeowners insurance. When it's time for property taxes or homeowners insurance to be paid, the bills are sent directly to your mortgage lender.

As of this writing, it is possible to snag a 30-year mortgage with a rate of 6.25% APR from one of the best lenders. Chances are, by the time you read this, the rate may have dropped slightly. However, we'll base all calculations in this article on a 6.25% APR.

Note about down payments below 20%: If you make a down payment of less than 20%, your mortgage lender will also charge you a monthly fee for private mortgage insurance (PMI). PMI protects the lender if you stop making mortgage payments. Your mortgage servicer must automatically stop charging you PMI when your principal balance is scheduled to reach 78% of the original value of your home, even if you don't personally make the request. In the case of a home with a $200,000 value, PMI will drop off when the principal balance hits $156,000.

PMI ranges from about 0.50% to 1.50% of the loan amount per year. The annual premium is then broken down into monthly installments. For example, a loan amount of $190,000 would carry a PMI ranging from $950 to $2,850 annually or $79 to $238 per month. The exact amount depends on factors such as loan size, credit score, down payment amount, and debt-to-income (DTI) ratio.

Principal, interest, taxes, and insurance

This table will look at roughly how much you can expect to pay based on different tax and homeowners insurance scenarios. For example, your monthly payment will be higher if property taxes in your area run $6,000 annually than they would be if your property taxes were $2,400. For the sake of simplicity, we'll say the annual premium on your homeowners insurance is $1,200.

With $2,400 annual property taxes:

With $3,600 annual property taxes:

With $4,800 annual property taxes:

With $6,000 annual property taxes:

Once you know how much your principal and interest payment is going to be, figuring your total is as easy as dividing your homeowners insurance by 12 and doing the same with your annual property tax.

Add the four numbers together (principal plus interest plus homeowners insurance plus annual property tax), and you have your total monthly mortgage payment.

To get the best rate on homeowners insurance, compare prices with a few different insurers. You may also be able to save by bundling your home auto insurance policies. And if you're concerned about the price of property taxes, check with your real estate agent to find out which areas of town are more affordable from that perspective.