Mortgage Calculator: Here’s How Much You Need To Buy a $429,990 Home at a 6.26% Rate

Mortgage rates this week for a 30-year fixed loan decreased to 6.26%, down from 6.35% last week. This marks a new 11-month low, a day after the Federal Reserve lowered its benchmark interest rate for the first time in nine months

So what impact does this have on your monthly mortgage payment? And what does this mean for homebuyers?

Here’s the monthly cost of purchasing a typical home today, according to the Realtor.com® mortgage calculator.

Monthly mortgage payment today with a 20% down payment

The typical monthly payment on a median-priced $429,990 home at today’s 6.26% mortgage rate is roughly $2,117. (That’s assuming a 20% down payment and excluding tax and insurance.)

Last week, a median-priced home at a 6.35% mortgage rate would have cost homebuyers $2,142 per month—$25 more than what buyers would pay today.

Yet, if you examine the peak mortgage rate of 7.79% in October 2023 and then compare those payments with loan installments today, homebuyers are way better off now than they would have been then.

In October 2023, buyers would have paid $2,537 monthly on a median priced home of $440,950 with 20% down, which means homebuyers today can save $249 a month—or $2,988 a year—compared with buying when rates peaked.

Monthly mortgage payment today with a 3.5% down payment

For most borrowers, FHA loans require a 3.5% down payment.

Assuming a 3.5% down payment and excluding tax and insurance, the typical payment at today’s 6.26% mortgage rate on a median-priced $429,990 home is roughly $2,547 per month.

Last week, a median-priced home at a 6.35% mortgage rate would have cost homebuyers $2,574 per month—$27 more than what buyers would pay today.

Nonetheless, mortgage payments at today’s rates on a median-priced home are still a $300-per-month improvement over October 2023, when a median-priced home at a 7.79% mortgage rate would have cost homebuyers $3,060 per month.

Long-term savings over 30 years

When you multiply these monthly savings by 30 years, they add up dramatically.

If you buy a $429,990 house at today’s 6.26% rate with a 20% down payment, you’ll pay a total of $762,120 over the life of a 30-year loan.

If you’d bought that same $429,990 home with 20% down in October 2023, when rates peaked at 7.79%, that loan would end up costing you $913,310.

Total savings over 30 years: $151,190.

Now, let’s turn our attention to FHA loans. If you put down 3.5% on a $429,990 house financed at 6.26% today, you’ll pay $917,040 over the life of the loan. If you’d put down 3.5% on a $429,990 home in October 2023, when rates peaked at 7.79%, you’d pay $1,101,679.

Total savings over 30 years: $184,639.

Julie Taylor is a reporter for Realtor.com. She was most recently a writer and co-executive producer on “The Talk” where she won two Daytime Emmy Awards. A member of the Writers Guild of America, Julie has written for Cosmopolitan, Glamour, and Redbook magazines and is the author of six books. Julie earned a B.A. in magazine journalism from the University of Central Oklahoma. After two decades in New York City and Los Angeles, she recently relocated to the Midwest.