How to accurately calculate Loan and House Payments?

[Carlos C.]

Hi Everyone!

I've only purchased a Home once (I don't own it anymore), and every calculator (even including Tax and Insurance) would predict my payments being way less than actual payments.

My loan was for 120,000. Monthly payments were $1400 (170 Principal, 480 Interest, 750 Escrow). And every calculator would put monthly payments at around 800 to 900/month.

In the future, when I see a  home  that I want to jump in and purchase, how can I accurately calculate what my real monthly payments will be?

Thanks! :) 

[Jon Holdman]

The payment calculators, the PMT function in excel or a financial calculator will calculate only the loan repayment.  Those are accurate.  But that's only the principal and interest.  You have to add on taxes and insurance.  And, depending on state and the lender, you may have some "buffer" that they're allowed to put into the escrow account that will increase your payments in the first year or two.  You should expect the payments to jump around from year to year as they re-do the escrow analysis.