You can calculate approximately what your new monthly payment for your new home loan. Simply enter the term of the loan, the interest rate, and the loan amount.

Before purchasing or refinancing, use this calculator to determine how much money can you realistically afford to spend on mortgage payments by entering different loan amounts.

How do we determine the "Minimum Salary?" We use 40% and 50% debt-to-income ratios, which are standard measurements.

1. Your gross (pre-taxes) monthly salary must be greater than 40% of the sum of the monthly mortgage payments.

2. Your gross (pre-taxes) monthly salary must be greater than 50% of the sum of the monthly mortgage, monthly tax, insurance, and other monthly debt payments.

The prequalification figures above are more lenient than Conventional program guidelines. Other loan programs are available for other ratios. Calculations by this tool are accurate, yet are not guaranteed. Further review is necessary to obtain an exact qualification. If you have less than 20% equity in your home, a monthly Mortgage Insurance payment may also be required.

By the way, you can also Compute Interest-only versus Conventional Payments. It is a good resource, particularly if you're an investor. Looking for a way to figure out closing costs? See our Closing Costs Calculator.

Don't be led astray and believe the calculations verbally given to you. Here's, a quick-and-dirty way of figuring payments is listed below, feel free to print out this page and carry it with you.

The Legal Stuff, From Our Lawyer: Information provided by these calculators is for illustrative purposes only. The information entered may vary from your actual loan, mortgage, investment, or savings results. Interest rates are hypothetical and are not meant to represent any specific investment. Rates of return will vary over time, particularly for long-term investments. The calculated results are not guaranteed to be accurate and are in no way endorsed, offered or guaranteed by Lightning Mortgage.