Down Payment Calculator
Loans & MortgagesPlan and save for your down payment.
Home & savings plan
Enter a home price above zero to plan your down payment.
Advanced options
Enter a home price above zero to plan your down payment.
Know what this estimate is based on
- Jurisdiction
- General model; U.S.-specific rules are identified on the relevant tool
- Scope and limitations
- Educational estimate only. A lender may use different compounding, day-count, eligibility, tax, insurance, escrow, fee, or rounding rules.
- Source links checked
- Jul 30, 2026
Built and regression-tested by Smart Tools Lab. It has not been individually reviewed by a licensed financial, tax, or legal professional.
How to use
- 01
Enter the home price and the down payment percentage you plan to put down.
- 02
Add what you've already saved and how much you can save each month.
- 03
Open Advanced options to set the PMI threshold, closing-cost estimate, expected return, and your target timeline.
- 04
Read your down payment, loan, loan-to-value, cash to close, and the time to reach your goal.
Formula
Down payment = home price × down payment %. Loan = home price − down payment, and loan-to-value (LTV) = loan ÷ home price. Cash to close = down payment + closing costs, where closing costs = home price × closing-cost %. To reach that cash, your current savings grow at the expected return while you add a monthly amount; the plan reports both how long your pace takes to reach the cash to close and the monthly amount needed to reach it by your target date.
Example
On a 3,000,000 home with 20% down, the down payment is 600,000 and the loan is 2,400,000 — an 80% LTV that just clears the PMI threshold. With closing costs at 3% (90,000), the cash to close is 690,000. Starting from 200,000 saved and adding 15,000 a month at a 4% return, you reach that 690,000 in about 2 years and 6 months. To be ready in 5 years instead, you'd only need to save about 6,700 a month.
Definitions
- Home price
- The purchase price of the home you're planning to buy.
- Down payment %
- The share of the price you pay upfront. It sets the down payment, the loan, and the loan-to-value.
- PMI threshold
- The down payment that avoids private mortgage insurance — conventionally 20% (an 80% LTV).
- Loan-to-value (LTV)
- The loan divided by the price. At or below 80% (20%+ down) most lenders drop PMI.
- Closing costs
- Fees due at closing — title, origination, taxes — estimated here as a percentage of the price (often 2–5%).
- Cash to close
- The total cash you need to buy: the down payment plus closing costs.
- Current savings
- What you've already set aside toward the purchase.
- Monthly saving
- How much you add to that pot each month.
- Expected return
- The annual growth rate on your savings while you wait to buy.
- Target timeline
- When you'd like to be ready — used to work out the monthly saving needed.
Good to know
The down payment is the lever that sets everything else
A down payment is the share of the purchase price you pay upfront from your own money, with a mortgage covering the rest. It is worth seeing it as a lever rather than a fixed cost, because the single percentage you choose ripples through every other number in the deal. Raise it and the loan shrinks pound for pound, which lowers the balance that accrues interest, reduces the monthly payment, and cuts the total interest you will pay across the life of the loan. Lower it and you free up cash today but borrow more, pay interest on a larger sum, and may trigger extra costs that a bigger deposit would have avoided. The calculator treats the planned down payment percentage as the primary input for exactly this reason: from it flow the down payment amount, the loan, and the loan-to-value ratio that lenders care about most. Lenders also read the figure as a signal of financial readiness — a larger deposit suggests a borrower who saves consistently and has a cushion against a dip in the property's value — so it can influence the interest rate you are offered, not just the size of the loan. Before you fix on a number, it helps to understand what each of the figures it drives actually means, because the right down payment is rarely the largest one you can scrape together; it is the one that balances a smaller loan against the other demands on your cash.
Loan-to-value and the 20% PMI threshold
Loan-to-value, or LTV, is the loan divided by the home's price, expressed as a percentage, and it is the mirror image of your down payment: put 20% down and your LTV is 80%, put 10% down and it is 90%. Lenders lean on this ratio because it measures their exposure — the more of the price you have funded yourself, the more equity stands between them and a loss if they ever have to sell the property. The figure that matters most for many buyers is the 20% mark, because crossing it usually removes the requirement for private mortgage insurance, often shortened to PMI. PMI is an extra monthly premium that protects the lender, not you, and it applies precisely when your down payment is under 20% and your LTV sits above 80%. It buys you nothing directly, yet it can add a meaningful sum to your housing cost every month until your equity grows enough to cancel it. This is why the tool highlights whether your plan clears the threshold and, when it does not, shows exactly how much more you would need to add to reach it. Treating 20% as a benchmark rather than an absolute rule is the sensible stance: plenty of sound purchases happen with less down, but you should go in knowing that a thinner deposit usually means paying PMI for a while, and factor that recurring cost into whether the smaller upfront payment is truly cheaper overall.
Cash to close: the cost most savers forget
The most common and most expensive planning mistake is to save diligently for the down payment and overlook everything else that is due on the same day. The cash you actually need to complete a purchase is not the down payment alone but the down payment plus closing costs — the bundle of fees for title work, loan origination, taxes, appraisal, and the various administrative charges that land at settlement. These costs commonly run somewhere in the region of a few percent of the price, which on a substantial home is a large sum in its own right, and they are payable in cash, not folded into the mortgage. The calculator makes this explicit by separating the down payment from the cash to close, and it builds your savings plan around the larger figure so the timeline you see reflects what it really takes to buy. A buyer who aims only at the down payment can arrive at completion technically short of funds, forced to scramble for the gap or delay the purchase. The fix is simply to set a realistic closing-cost percentage under the advanced options and let the plan target the full amount. Because closing costs vary by location, lender, and property, treat the default as a starting estimate and confirm the real figure with your lender's written quote — but never plan as though they do not exist, because they always do.
Two ways to read your savings plan
Reaching the cash to close is a savings problem, and there are two honest ways to frame it, which is why the calculator reports two distinct numbers rather than one. The first takes the monthly amount you say you can save and works out how long, at that pace, your current savings plus those contributions — growing gently at your expected return — will take to reach the goal. This answers the question 'if I keep doing what I am doing, when am I ready?' The second flips the question around: it fixes a target date and solves for the monthly saving required to arrive exactly on time. This answers 'if I want to buy in five years, how much must I put aside each month?' Comparing the two is where the insight lives. If the pace-based timeline lands comfortably before your target date, you have slack and can relax the monthly figure or aim for a larger deposit. If the required monthly saving is far above what you are setting aside, the plan is telling you politely that the goal and the timeline do not yet agree, and something has to give — a longer horizon, a smaller percentage down, a cheaper home, or a higher saving rate. The expected return matters here too: savings earmarked for a purchase a few years away are usually best kept somewhere stable, so it is wise to assume a modest growth rate rather than a stock-market figure that could fall just when you need the money.
The hidden cost of a very thin down payment
Putting little down can feel like the obvious route into a home sooner, and sometimes it is the right call, but it carries risks that are easy to underrate. A down payment under about 10% leaves you with a high loan-to-value, which tends to attract a higher interest rate, the PMI premium discussed above, and very little equity to absorb a fall in the property's value. That last point is the quiet danger: if prices dip even modestly, a borrower who put down a sliver can find themselves owing more than the home is worth — underwater — which traps them in the property and the loan until values recover. A larger deposit builds a cushion against exactly that scenario and lowers every interest-driven cost at the same time. The calculator flags a thin down payment precisely because its drawbacks are spread across several numbers — the rate, the insurance, the equity buffer — and are easy to miss when you focus only on getting through the front door. None of this means a small deposit is always wrong; for some buyers, entering the market sooner and beginning to build equity outweighs the extra cost, and waiting years to reach 20% has its own price if rents and prices climb in the meantime. The point is to make the trade deliberately, with the recurring costs and the reduced safety margin in full view, rather than defaulting to the smallest number that a lender will accept.
Balancing the deposit against your safety net
It is possible to save too aggressively for a down payment, and the warning sign is a plan that would leave you cash-poor the moment you buy. Sinking every last pound into the deposit and closing costs maximises your equity and minimises your loan, but it also strips away the reserve that protects you when a boiler fails, a job ends, or an unexpected bill arrives — and those events become more likely, not less, once you own a home with its maintenance and repair demands. A sound plan therefore aims for a meaningful down payment while deliberately keeping an emergency fund intact on the other side of the purchase. The calculator surfaces this directly by showing the cash you would have left after buying today: a positive buffer means you can complete the purchase and still hold a reserve, while a negative figure shows you are short and reveals by how much. Read that number as a guardrail. If hitting your target deposit would wipe out your savings entirely, it is usually wiser to put slightly less down, keep a few months of expenses in reserve, and accept a marginally larger loan than to own a home with no protection against the first surprise. As with everything here, this is general education rather than personal financial advice, so weigh the down payment, the ongoing costs, and your own circumstances together, and lean on a qualified adviser for decisions specific to your situation.
Frequently asked questions
How much down payment do I need?
It depends on the loan, but 20% avoids private mortgage insurance on most mortgages. This tool shows the down payment, loan, and loan-to-value for any percentage you choose, and flags whether it clears the PMI threshold.
What is PMI and when do I pay it?
Private mortgage insurance protects the lender when your down payment is under 20% (a loan-to-value above 80%). The badge and warning flag when your plan falls below the threshold, and the result shows how much more you'd need to add to avoid it.
What's the difference between the down payment and the cash to close?
The down payment is the upfront share of the price. The cash to close also includes closing costs — title, origination, and taxes — so it's the full amount of cash you need on the day you buy. Many buyers save only the down payment and are caught short by these fees.
How are closing costs estimated?
They're estimated as a percentage of the home price, defaulting to 3% and adjustable under Advanced options. Actual closing costs vary by location and lender, so treat the figure as a planning estimate and confirm with your lender.
Why are there two saving numbers?
They answer two different questions. 'Time to goal' shows how long your current monthly saving takes to reach the cash to close. 'Monthly needed' shows the monthly amount required to reach it by your target date instead. Compare them to see whether your plan is on pace.
What is the loan amount?
It's the home price minus your down payment — the amount you'd need to borrow. A larger down payment shrinks the loan, lowers the loan-to-value, and reduces the interest you'll pay over the life of the mortgage.