FHA Loan Calculator

FHA insures a purchase with as little as 3.5% down for a borrower with a decision credit score of 580 or higher. Below 580 (down to FHA’s 500 floor), HUD requires at least 10% down. Most lenders also add their own minimum credit score above FHA’s floor, called an overlay, so a specific lender may ask for more than the program minimum.

Every FHA loan carries Mortgage Insurance Premium in two parts: an upfront premium of 1.75% of the base loan amount, normally financed into the loan, and an annual premium billed monthly. Unlike private mortgage insurance on a conventional loan, MIP cannot be cancelled by requesting it once you reach 80% equity. Whether it ever cancels at all depends only on your loan-to-value at closing: 90% or below cancels automatically after 11 years, above 90% runs for the life of the loan.

It is not negotiable and does not depend on credit score. HUD publishes a fixed table keyed on your loan’s term, whether the base loan amount is above or below $726,200, and your loan-to-value at closing. This calculator looks up the applicable rate for you rather than asking you to already know it.

Because financing the upfront premium is the norm: it is added to the base loan amount at closing, so the balance you actually amortize — and the balance monthly MIP is charged against — is the base loan plus the financed premium, not the base loan alone.

HUD’s manually-underwritten base qualifying ratios are 31% for housing costs alone (the front-end ratio) and 43% for housing costs plus all other debt (the back-end ratio). Lenders can exceed both with documented compensating factors — reserves, residual income, a low payment shock — and loans run through FHA’s automated underwriting system are frequently approved well above 43%. Treat 31%/43% as the baseline this calculator checks against, not a hard wall.

Not by requesting it, the way you can with conventional PMI. The only routes off MIP are reaching your loan’s automatic cancellation date (11 years, if your original loan-to-value was 90% or below) or refinancing out of the FHA program entirely, typically into a conventional loan once you have enough equity.