Information and interactive calculators are made available to you as self-help tools for your independent use and are not intended to provide investment advice. We can not and do not guarantee their applicability or accuracy in regards to your individual circumstances. All examples are hypothetical and are for illustrative purposes. We encourage you to seek personalized advice from qualified professionals regarding all personal finance issues.

Taxes can be assessed against the value of your property by your city, town, county, school district, state, and/or special taxing district. Altogether, annual property taxes can range from a low of 0% (no tax) to almost 2% of the home’s value. It’s best to learn what tax rate applies to your area. In the meantime, you can estimate annual taxes to run about 1% of the home’s value.

Mortgage insurance is usually estimated about half a percent of the home’s value per year, and is required if the principal balance on your loan is more than 80% of the loan’s value.

Hazard insurance (fire, flood, etc.) varies with the amount of risk associated with the property, which varies by location and other factors. If you don’t know, estimate that the yearly charge for hazard insurance will cost about three tenths of a percent of the home’s value.

Closing Costs are associated with purchasing a house and securing a home loan. These can be paid at closing. If not paid in full at the time of closing, the unpaid amount can be rolled into the loan, which will further increase your monthly payment.

All that said, we hope you’ll find these tools useful as a general indication of the size of home loan you can afford.