Mortgage calculators

Mortgage calculators can show you your potential monthly mortgage payment and even help you get prequalified—all you need to do is input a few criteria, such as home price, location, and income details. Having this information can help you feel more confident in your home search.

You can get a ballpark estimate of your monthly mortgage payment by looking at the interest rate on your loan. For example, if a 30-year fixed rate loan charges between 6% - 7% interest, then your monthly payment will be approximately 0.6% to 0.7% of the loan amount. However, mortgage payments often include costs other than the principal and interest, such as:

• Property taxes
• Homeowners insurance
• Private mortgage insurance (if your down payment is less than 20% of the loan)

To estimate your total monthly payment, a common shortcut is to multiply the home price by 0.8% to 1.0%. This assumes average property taxes and current interest rates and is meant for rough planning purposes.

Mortgage prequalification is a simple process that uses your income, debt, and credit information to let you know how much you may be able to borrow. Getting prequalified before you shop for homes can help you:

• Focus your search — Establishing  your price range up front means you can target the right homes in your search.
• Move forward confidently — When it's time to make an offer, you'll have the confidence of knowing you can back it up.
• Know your options — Seeing the loan amount, interest rate, and monthly payment you could qualify for means you'll be able to make the mortgage decision that works best for you. 

Prequalification and preapproval actually have more similarities than differences:

• Neither comes with any fees or obligations.
• Neither one is a commitment to lend.
• Both provide an estimate of how much you could borrow to buy a home.
• Both base that estimate on factors like your debt-to-income ratio, how much you have for a down payment, and your credit history.

The key difference is that a preapproval is a more accurate and reliable estimate based on a more complete view of your credit. That's because when you prequalify, we perform a "soft" credit inquiry, which gives us information about your credit history and monthly debts, but this doesn't provide as much detail as a "hard" credit inquiry, which is required for a standard mortgage industry preapproval.

A Wells Fargo preapproval comes with a PriorityBuyer^® letter that you and your agent can give to sellers when you make an offer, so they know you're a serious buyer. A “soft” credit inquiry is performed with a PriorityBuyer letter.

If you're not sure which option is right for you, start by getting prequalified online. It only takes a few minutes, and afterward you can easily take the next step and let us know you'd like to get preapproved.

Many people start by determining what they can afford as a monthly payment. A common starting point is to calculate 25% of your gross monthly income to help determine a manageable monthly mortgage payment.

• Learn more about determining your monthly payment
• Wells Fargo home price range calculator

Interest rates are influenced by the financial markets and can change daily – or multiple times within the same day. The changes are based on many different economic indicators in the financial markets. View our current interest rates

Your monthly mortgage payment typically will include principal and interest on the mortgage, as well as homeowners insurance and property taxes if your mortgage payment includes escrow. Depending on your down payment and loan type, you may also have to pay private mortgage insurance as part of your monthly mortgage payment.

• Learn more about the components of a mortgage payment
• Learn more about escrow

A larger down payment can reduce the amount you need to borrow, and that usually lowers your monthly mortgage payments. For example, if you're paying $400,000 for a home and put 5% down, you need to borrow $380,000. At 6.5% interest on a 30-year loan, you pay about $2,400 each month. But if you put 20% down, then you only need to borrow $320,000. Now your monthly payment is just $2,020. Plus, your lender may not require private mortgage insurance, which helps lower your mortgage payment even further.