15 Year Home Loan Calculator

What a 15-year home loan payment covers

A 15-year home loan retires the debt in exactly 180 monthly payments at one rate that never moves. The payment is the same in month 1 and month 180; what changes is the split inside it. Early payments lean hard toward interest: on the $300,000 loan at 6.60% used throughout this page, the first payment carries $1,650.00 of interest and only $979.84 of principal. Every month after that, the interest slice shrinks a little and the principal slice grows, until the last payment is almost entirely principal.

The loan payment itself is only part of what leaves your account. Property taxes, homeowners insurance, and any HOA fee ride along with it, usually through an escrow account the servicer manages. The calculator above keeps those costs in separate boxes so you can see the loan on its own and the full monthly total side by side. That separation matters when you compare lender offers, because two lenders quoting the same rate can still land at different full monthly amounts once escrow is counted.

The rate used here is not invented. Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey put the 15-year average at 6.60% for the week of October 29, 2026 (Freddie Mac, 2026). Treat that as a reference point, not a quote: lenders price daily, and your own rate depends on credit score, down payment, and the property. Type the rate from your Loan Estimate into the box above for numbers that match your offer.

The payment at 6.60%, by loan size

At the October 2026 survey average of 6.60%, every $1,000 borrowed adds about $8.77 to the monthly payment. The table runs the standard amortization formula across five loan sizes. Total interest is the payment times 180 minus the amount borrowed, and it scales in a straight line because the rate and the term never change.

Interest takes 36.6 cents of every dollar paid on each of these loans, a share fixed by the rate and the term. On the $300,000 example, interest is $173,371.64 of the $473,371.64 that leaves your account over 15 years. The weekly series behind these figures is published in Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey and archived as the FRED series MORTGAGE15US kept by the St. Louis Fed, so you can check where the average has moved since this page was written.

15 years against 30 years: the dollar gap

The same $300,000, split across two terms at the October 2026 survey rates, shows what the shorter loan buys and what it costs. The 15-year loan at 6.60% asks for $2,629.84 a month. The 30-year loan at 7.24% asks for $2,044.49. The gap is $585.35 a month, which is 28.6% more cash out the door each month for the shorter loan.

The payoff for absorbing the higher payment is larger than the gap suggests. The 15-year borrower pays $173,371.64 of interest in total; the 30-year borrower pays $436,017.99. Choosing the shorter term keeps $262,646.35 in your pocket, and the house is fully owned 15 years sooner. Part of the saving comes from the lower 15-year rate itself and part from the compressed schedule, and both push the same way: less time for interest to accrue on a balance that falls fast from the first month.

The honest comparison for your own situation uses the same balance, the real rate you are offered on each term, and your actual tax and insurance bills. A shorter term at a much higher rate than your current loan can sometimes cost more than it saves, which is why the rate boxes matter more than the term labels.

Where the balance goes: the five-year race

Interest accrues only on the balance still owed, so the whole game is forcing that balance down. After five years, the 15-year borrower owes $230,571.75 while the 30-year borrower still owes $283,107.16 of the same $300,000. The 15-year borrower has retired $69,428.25 of principal; the 30-year borrower has retired $16,892.84. That difference of $52,535.41 is the equity edge at the five-year mark, before any movement in home value.

Half the principal on the 15-year loan is gone by month 112. The 30-year loan does not cross that line until month 263, more than a decade later. And at month 180, when the 15-year borrower makes a final payment and walks away clear, the 30-year borrower still owes $224,103.48, which is 74.7% of the original amount, with another 180 payments ahead.

That equity pace is also a safety feature. Equity is cash at the closing table if you ever sell, and closing costs come out of it. A thin equity line can turn a forced sale into a loss; a fast one gives you room to move.

Taxes and insurance: the part the loan does not fix

Principal and interest are set by the loan; tax and insurance are set by your address and your coverage choices. On the example loan, $3,600 a year of property tax is $300.00 a month and $1,440 a year of homeowners insurance is $120.00 a month. Added to the $2,629.84 loan payment, the full monthly bill is $3,049.84. Those two add-ons grow over time with tax assessments and premium increases while the loan payment stays frozen, which is why the escrow part of a mortgage statement often rises in years when the loan part does not.

Most lenders collect these amounts through escrow. Under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, a servicer may charge at closing a cushion of no more than two months of estimated disbursements, and during the loan no more than one-twelfth of the annual escrow total each month (CFPB, Regulation X, 12 CFR 1024.17). The CFPB's escrow explainer spells out those limits, and its page on impound accounts covers what happens if the account comes up short.

Two practical warnings. First, if you skip escrow where the lender allows it, you still owe the bills, and falling behind on taxes can bring penalties or, in the worst case, foreclosure. Second, if insurance lapses, the servicer can buy force-placed coverage on your behalf, and the CFPB notes it typically costs more than a policy you shop for yourself. Budget the full $3,049.84, not the $2,629.84, before you commit to the 15-year payment.

Extra principal: months off the end

The 15-year schedule already front-loads principal, and an extra payment moves the finish line again. Every extra dollar goes straight to principal, so it stops accruing interest for the rest of the term. The table shows what a standing extra payment does to the $300,000 loan at 6.60%, with the required payment left unchanged.

An extra $100 a month is $1,200 a year, and it buys back 10 months of payments plus $11,790.99 of interest. Before committing, confirm two things with your servicer: that the money is applied to principal in the month it arrives, and that the loan carries no prepayment penalty. Most fixed-rate home loans today have none, but it costs one phone call to be sure.

One pattern worth knowing is the thirteenth payment: sending one-twelfth of the regular payment as an extra each month, here $219.15, which lands close to the $250 row in the table and finishes the loan 22 months early. Splitting a bonus into monthly pieces beats waiting for year end, because every dollar starts saving interest the month it lands rather than the month it is sent.

The income the payment asks for

Lenders size a housing payment against gross income, and a long-standing guideline caps housing near 28% of gross monthly pay, though each lender and loan program draws its own line. On that guideline, the $2,629.84 payment on the $300,000 loan needs 2,629.84 / 0.28 = $9,392.29 a month before tax, about $112,700 a year. Covering the full escrow payment of $3,049.84 at the same ratio would need closer to $10,892 a month, so the add-ons raise the bar as much as the term does.

That covers the front-end ratio only. Lenders also compute a back-end ratio that stacks every monthly debt obligation on top of the housing cost: car loans, student loans, credit card minimums. The CFPB's debt-to-income explainer (CFPB) walks through how lenders count those obligations. A buyer with a $600 car payment does not qualify on housing alone; the full stack has to fit under the lender's ceiling.

If the 15-year payment fails that test, there is a middle path: take the 30-year loan for the lower required payment and pay the difference voluntarily. In good months the totals match the 15-year schedule; in a bad month you can drop back to the required amount without calling anyone. The cost is a somewhat higher rate on the 30-year loan, so run both through the calculator before choosing.