VA Monthly Payment Calculator

What a VA loan payment includes

A VA payment has four lines you pay every month: principal, interest, property tax and homeowners insurance. A fifth line, HOA dues, shows up only on a condo, townhouse or gated community. The line that is missing is mortgage insurance. VA loans do not carry monthly mortgage insurance, so every dollar above the escrow lines goes to the loan balance.

Principal retires the balance. Interest is charged on whatever balance is left, which is why the first payment on a 30 year loan is mostly interest and the last one is almost all principal. Property tax and insurance are collected monthly into an escrow account and paid by the servicer when the bills come due.

The VA funding fee is a different animal. It is a one time charge paid to VA, not to the lender, and most buyers roll it into the loan. That raises the balance and the monthly principal and interest, but it never appears as its own monthly line. On the $400,000 example below, $2,515.82 of the $3,032.49 payment is principal and interest. The remaining $516.67 is tax and insurance.

The VA funding fee, in dollars

The fee is a percentage of the base loan, which is the price minus your down payment. It pays for the guaranty that replaces mortgage insurance, and it is charged once instead of every month. Two things set the rate: whether this is your first VA loan or a later one, and how much you put down.

First use with nothing down is 2.15 percent. Put 5 percent down and the rate drops to 1.50 percent. Put 10 percent or more down and it falls to 1.25 percent. A later use with nothing down costs 3.30 percent, while a later use with 5 percent or more down pays the same 1.50 or 1.25 percent as a first use. Veterans with a service connected disability rating of 10 percent or higher, and surviving spouses who qualify, pay nothing at all.

Read the dollar column, not just the rate. Moving from nothing down to 10 percent down cuts the fee from $8,600 to $4,500 on the same house, and it also cuts the loan balance by $40,000. VA publishes the current schedule on its VA funding fee page, and the percentages there have held since January 1, 2020.

A worked example on a $400,000 home

Take a $400,000 purchase with nothing down, a 6.25 percent rate, a 30 year term, property tax at 1.1 percent of value and $1,800 a year for homeowners insurance. The base loan is the full $400,000. The funding fee is 400,000 x 0.0215 = $8,600. Finance it and the loan you repay is 400,000 + 8,600 = $408,600.

Principal and interest comes from the standard formula, P x r / (1 - (1 + r) to the negative n), where P is the loan, r is the monthly rate and n is the number of payments. The monthly rate is 0.0625 / 12 = 0.0052083 and n is 360. That gives $2,515.82 a month. Interest over the full 360 payments comes to $497,095.37.

Escrow is easier. Property tax is 400,000 x 0.011 = $4,400 a year, or 4,400 / 12 = $366.67 a month. Insurance is 1,800 / 12 = $150.00. Add the lines and you get 2,515.82 + 366.67 + 150.00 = $3,032.49.

Two caveats on the tax line. Counties bill on assessed value, which can differ from the price you paid, and the first escrow year often includes a supplemental bill after a sale. Check the assessor record for the address before you treat $366.67 as final, and expect a coastal wind policy or an older roof to push the insurance quote higher.

Why there is no monthly mortgage insurance

VA does not sell mortgage insurance. It guarantees part of the loan instead, and the funding fee pays for that guaranty. The guaranty covers 25 percent of the loan, which is what lets a lender write the full purchase price with nothing down.

Compare the same $400,000 purchase on an FHA loan at 3.5 percent down and the same 6.25 percent rate. The base loan is $386,000, the 1.75 percent upfront premium adds $6,755, and the loan becomes $392,755. Principal and interest is $2,418.26. Then annual mortgage insurance at 0.55 percent adds 386,000 x 0.0055 / 12 = $176.92 a month, and on a loan above 95 percent of value it runs for the full 30 years. At 360 payments that premium alone totals $63,691.

Run the VA side the same way. Financing the $8,600 fee adds $52.95 a month to principal and interest, and $19,063 in extra interest across 30 years. The whole fee costs less than 49 months of that FHA premium. A conventional loan with 5 percent down avoids the fee, but private mortgage insurance still runs about 0.5 to 1.1 percent of the loan a year, as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau explains. On a $400,000 loan that is $2,000 to $4,400 a year.

The trade is real, but it is not close for a buyer with no down payment. VA charges the fee once. Mortgage insurance is a monthly bill until the balance falls enough or the loan is refinanced.

Down payment, entitlement and the 2026 loan limit

Since January 1, 2020, a veteran with full entitlement has no VA loan limit. The county limit still matters in two places: it sets the guaranty VA will issue, and it drives the down payment when part of your entitlement is already tied to another loan.

For 2026 the baseline limit for a one unit home is $832,750 in most counties, and high cost counties top out at $1,249,125. VA follows the conforming limit that FHFA publishes each fall. The table shows the 2026 figures by unit count.

Here is how a second use works in practice. VA guarantees 25 percent of the loan, so the baseline limit supports 832,750 x 0.25 = $208,187.50 of guaranty. If $100,000 of entitlement is still tied to a home you kept, you have $108,187.50 left. Buy a $900,000 home and 25 percent of the price is $225,000, which is $116,812.50 more than you have. That shortfall is the down payment VA requires unless you sell the first home, pay that loan off or have the entitlement restored.

Look up the county for the address before you assume the baseline applies, since high cost areas run well above it.

Term and rate: what a shorter loan does

Term moves the payment more than most buyers expect. Keep the same $408,600 loan. At 6.25 percent over 30 years the payment is $2,515.82 and the interest is $497,095.37. Drop to 20 years and the rate usually falls a little, say 6.0 percent: $2,927.34 a month and $293,960.95 of interest. At 15 years and 5.75 percent it is $3,393.06 and $202,150.01.

The 15 year loan saves 497,095.37 - 202,150.01 = $294,945.36 of interest and costs $877.24 more each month. Over 180 payments that extra money totals $157,903.20, so the shorter loan still comes out about $137,042 ahead by the time it is paid off. The catch is cash flow: a payment 35 percent larger has to fit the budget every month for 15 years.

A 15 year loan also builds equity faster. If you plan to sell within seven years, the lower 30 year payment usually leaves more room in the budget.

Taxes, insurance and HOA: the lines VA does not set

VA sets the funding fee and the guaranty. It does not set your property tax rate, your insurance premium or your HOA dues, and those three lines can swing more than the rate on the loan.

Effective property tax rates run from roughly 0.3 percent of value in parts of the South to more than 2 percent in parts of Texas, Illinois and New Jersey. On a $400,000 home that spread is $1,200 to $8,000 a year, or $100 to $667 a month. The top of that range is more than double the gap between a 6 percent and a 7 percent mortgage, which is about $263 a month on the same loan. Use the county assessor rate for the address instead of a national average.

Homeowners insurance on a $400,000 house commonly runs $1,500 to $3,500 a year, and coastal wind coverage or a wildfire zone pushes it higher. Condo owners pay an HOA that covers the building exterior, so the master policy insures the structure and an HO-6 policy covers the inside of the unit. A detached house with an HOA usually sees dues of $50 to $250 a month for common areas.

Escrow rules matter at closing. Lenders can hold a cushion of up to one sixth of the annual disbursements, so the first payment can include a few hundred dollars of reserves that even out over the year.

What this calculator leaves out

Four costs sit outside the monthly payment. Closing costs typically run 2 to 5 percent of the price, which is $8,000 to $20,000 on a $400,000 home. The VA appraisal is usually paid by the buyer, and the lender charges an origination fee, title insurance and recording fees on top.

Seller concessions can cover part of that. VA allows a seller to pay up to 4 percent of the price in concessions, which is $16,000 on this purchase, but that money cannot be used for the down payment when one is required, and discount points sit outside the cap.

Three assumptions are built into the numbers. The rate stays fixed for the full term, so an adjustable rate loan will move after the fixed period. The tax rate is applied to the price rather than the assessed value. And the model does not add a second mortgage, a down payment assistance loan or a buydown funded by the seller.

Two rules to check before you sign. VA requires you to move in within a reasonable time and use the home as your primary residence. And if VA awards a disability rating after closing with an effective date before the closing date, you can request a refund of the funding fee. The VA purchase loan page covers both rules and the refund process.