Type "$400,000 home, 20% down, 6.5%" into most mortgage calculators and you'll see a clean number: about $2,023 a month. That's real — it's just not what you'll actually pay.
PITI calculator, the four pieces most tools skip
PITI stands for Principal, Interest, Taxes, and Insurance — the four components of a real mortgage bill. Principal and interest are the loan payment itself; property tax and home insurance get collected monthly into an escrow account and paid on your behalf. Skip the last two and your estimate is missing a third or more of the real cost in many areas.
Mortgage payment calculator with taxes and insurance, the actual gap
On that same $400,000 home: $2,022.62 in principal and interest, plus $366.67 in property tax (at the US average rate of about 1.1%) and $125 in home insurance, brings the real monthly payment to $2,514.29 — nearly $500 more than the loan payment alone suggests.
Mortgage calculator with PMI, and when it goes away
Put down less than 20% and lenders require PMI (private mortgage insurance) to protect against default risk. On a $360,000 loan (10% down) at a typical 0.6% annual rate, that's another $180 a month — on top of everything else. PMI isn't permanent: it's typically removed once you reach 20% equity, whether through paydown or appreciation.
