Down Payment Calculator

The basic arithmetic

The down payment is the purchase price multiplied by your target percentage: $300,000 at 20% is $60,000. The amount you finance is the price less that cash, and that balance is what the monthly payment and interest numbers are calculated on.

Every percentage point of down payment is the same math: 1% of a $300,000 price is $3,000 of cash and $3,000 less debt. Ten points changes the loan by $30,000 - an amount with real consequences for the monthly payment over a 30-year term.

What different percentages are for

Conventional loans commonly price a 20% down payment because that is the threshold where private mortgage insurance disappears. Below 20% PMI is required on conventional loans, but several programs have lower floors: FHA accepts 3.5% down (with its own mortgage insurance), and VA and USDA loans allow zero down for eligible borrowers.

A bigger down payment also competes with your emergency fund and other goals. Putting 20% down but draining your savings may be worse than 10% down with a cash buffer and PMI, which is why this page shows the savings pace as well as the amount.

From savings to a target date

Divide the target amount by what you save each month to get the number of months: $60,000 at $600 a month is 100 months - about 8 years 4 months. The estimate assumes savings earn no interest before closing, which is the honest, conservative version of the plan.

Saving longer helps twice: a larger down payment reduces the loan, so growing your cash also shrinks the debt you will carry, improving the monthly payment from both ends.

Set a savings pace to see a date. With no monthly amount entered the page prompts you to choose one before it prints a target month, because a goal with no pace behind it is not a plan yet - and raising the pace shrinks the wait far faster than nudging the percentage alone would suggest.

Assumptions behind the numbers

The loan schedule assumes equal monthly payments with interest charged on the outstanding balance, no extra payments and no early payoff, and the rate you enter is a nominal annual rate compounded monthly. The payment covers principal and interest only.

Closing costs, property tax, homeowners insurance and HOA dues are separate costs that most purchases need several percent of the price on top of the down payment, and the down payment itself does not change their size much.

The monthly payment figure is therefore best read as the mortgage portion of the true monthly cost, not the full cost of owning. Adding the escrowed tax, insurance and any HOA amount to your own budget is the step that turns the estimate into a number you can actually plan around.

What the saving pace really controls

The time-to-save figure comes from dividing the down payment by the monthly pace, and it ignores everything that could change along the way: prices, rates, and the fact that money in a deposit account earns something while you wait. Treat it as a planning horizon rather than a promise.

The pace is also the only field that moves the date without changing the target. Adding a hundred dollars a month to the same down payment shortens the wait roughly in proportion, while raising the down payment percentage lengthens it and lowers the loan at the same time - two different levers that the page keeps separate on purpose.

One practical ordering: decide the down payment percentage first, because it sets the loan amount and whether mortgage insurance applies, then use the pace to see how far away that date is. Adjusting the pace to hit a date you have already chosen is how a house-buying plan turns into a savings plan.