FHA Mortgage
Calculator.

The government's guarantee.

An FHA loan is a mortgage insured by the Federal Housing Administration, a division of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The FHA doesn't lend money directly — it insures lenders against losses if borrowers default. That insurance is what allows lenders to offer lower down payment requirements and more flexible credit standards than conventional loans.

The trade-off is mortgage insurance premium. Every FHA borrower pays it, regardless of their credit score or how large their down payment is (above 3.5%). The FHA uses the premiums collected to fund the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund, which covers lender losses and keeps the program self-sustaining.

The math behind your FHA payment.

Your total monthly FHA payment is the sum of five components:

The P&I is calculated on your total financed amount — which includes the base loan plus the UFMIP if you choose to roll it in. The annual MIP is applied to your base loan amount (not the total with UFMIP), divided by 12.

FHA loan limits — every county has a ceiling.

FHA loans have maximum loan limits that vary by county. For 2025, the national FHA floor is $498,257 for single-family homes in low-cost areas. In high-cost markets — like San Francisco, Los Angeles, or New York — the ceiling reaches $1,209,750. If your target home price exceeds the FHA limit in your county, you'll need to look at conventional financing or a jumbo loan.

You can find your county's specific FHA loan limit on the official HUD loan limits lookup tool. The calculator above works for any loan amount — just be aware that your actual FHA eligibility depends on the limit for your market.

FHA wins when your credit score is below 660.

Conventional loans technically start at 620, but rates climb steeply for scores between 620 and 680. At 640, a conventional loan may carry an interest rate 0.5% to 1% higher than an FHA loan — adding hundreds per month. With a credit score below 660, FHA almost always delivers a lower rate, which can more than offset the MIP cost. Use the mortgage comparison calculator to run both scenarios with real numbers.

Conventional wins when you put 20% down.

If your down payment is 20% or more, there's almost no reason to use FHA. At 20% down, conventional loans have no PMI and no upfront insurance premium. The monthly payment will be lower, the total cost of the loan will be lower, and your loan options are wider. FHA's value proposition disappears entirely when the down payment is large enough to avoid private mortgage insurance.

FHA wins for 3.5% down buyers with a plan to stay 5+ years.

For first-time buyers with a 580–680 credit score who can only put 3.5% down, FHA is the most practical path. The lower interest rate compensates for MIP in the early years. If you plan to stay long enough to build 20% equity — either through payments or appreciation — you can eventually refinance out of MIP entirely. The amortization calculator shows exactly how long that takes at your specific rate and balance.

The lifetime cost comparison.

On a $350,000 purchase at 6.5% with 3.5% down, a 30-year FHA loan costs roughly $55,900 more in lifetime MIP than a conventional loan with PMI — because conventional PMI cancels automatically, while FHA MIP on a >90% LTV loan is permanent. However, if the FHA rate is 0.5% lower than the conventional rate (common for sub-700 credit scores), the interest savings over 30 years can be $30,000 or more, closing much of that gap.

The bottom line: run both scenarios in the comparison calculator with your actual quoted rates. The numbers will tell you which loan wins for your specific situation.