If you’re ready to buy a home, you might wonder how much you’ll need to budget each month to cover the mortgage payments for your dream home. Here’s a breakdown of what you might pay monthly, in interest and over the life of a $250,000 mortgage.
At a 4% fixed interest rate, your monthly mortgage payment on a 25-year mortgage might total $1,315.05 a month, while a 15-year might cost $1,845.10 a month.
Note that your monthly mortgage payments may differ slightly depending on the type of interest rate (fixed, variable, etc.), your mortgage term, payment frequency, taxes (such as CMHC insurance) and possible other fees.
On a 25-year mortgage with a 4% fixed interest rate, you’ll pay approximately $144,515 in interest over the life of your mortgage. That’s about two-thirds of what you borrowed in interest.
If you instead opt for a 15-year mortgage, you’ll pay approximately $82,117 in interest over the life of your mortgage — or about 57% of the interest you’d pay on a 25-year mortgage.
Your amortization period is the total number of years you have to pay off your mortgage.
When you sign on for a mortgage, you agree to pay the principal amount and the interest over the life of the mortgage. Your interest rate is applied to your principal amount, and as you pay down your principal amount, the amount you pay in interest changes. Amortization means that at the beginning of your mortgage, a big percentage of your payment is applied to interest. With each subsequent payment, you pay more toward your principal amount and less toward interest.
Below, you can estimate your monthly mortgage repayments on a $250,000 mortgage at a 4% fixed interest rate with our amortization schedule over 15- and 25- years.
At a 4% fixed-rate over 15-years, you’d pay approximately $1,845.10 monthly. Over the course of a year, that’s a total of $22,141.20 in mortgage payments. In the table below, compare how much you would pay toward both interest and the principal amount each year.
| Year | Total interest paid | Total principal paid | Ending balance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $9,692.95 | $12,448.21 | $237,551.79 |
| 2 | $9,190.04 | $12,951.12 | $224,600.75 |
| 3 | $8,666.82 | $13,474.34 | $211,126.33 |
| 4 | $8,122.46 | $14,018.71 | $197,107.62 |
| 5 | $7,556.10 | $14,585.06 | $182,522.56 |
| 6 | $6,966.86 | $15,174.30 | $167,348.26 |
| 7 | $6,353.82 | $15,787.34 | $151,560.92 |
| 8 | $5,716.01 | $16,425.15 | $135,135.77 |
| 9 | $5,052.44 | $17,088.73 | $118,047.04 |
| 10 | $4,362.05 | $17,779.11 | $100,267.93 |
| 11 | $3,643.78 | $18,497.39 | $81,770.54 |
| 12 | $2,896.48 | $19,244.68 | $62,525.86 |
| 13 | $2,118.99 | $20,022.16 | $42,503.70 |
| 14 | $1,310.10 | $20,831.06 | $21,672.64 |
| 15 | $468.53 | $21,672.64 | $0.00 |
At a 4% fixed-rate over 25-years, you’d pay approximately $1,315.05 monthly. Over the course of a year, that’s a total of $15,780.60 in mortgage payments. In the table below, compare how much you would pay toward both interest and the principal amount each year.
| Year | Total interest paid | Total principal paid | Ending balance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $9,809.89 | $5,970.72 | $244,029.28 |
| 2 | $9,568.66 | $6,211.94 | $217,817.34 |
| 3 | $ 9,317.71 | $6,462.90 | $231,354.44 |
| 4 | $ 9,056.60 | $6,724.00 | $224,630.44 |
| 5 | $ 8,784.96 | $6,995.65 | $217,634.79 |
| 6 | $8,502.33 | $7,278.28 | $210,356.51 |
| 7 | $8,208.29 | $7,572.32 | $202,784.19 |
| 8 | $7,902.36 | $7,878.23 | $194,905.96 |
| 9 | $7,584.09 | $8,196.52 | $186,709.44 |
| 10 | $ 7,252.95 | $8,527.66 | $178,181.78 |
| 11 | $6,908.43 | $8,872.18 | $169,309.60 |
| 12 | $6,549.99 | $9,230.61 | $160,078.99 |
| 13 | $6,177.08 | $9,603.53 | $150,475.46 |
| 14 | $5,789.09 | $9,991.52 | $140,483.94 |
| 15 | $5,385.44 | $10,395.17 | $130,088.77 |
| 16 | $4,965.47 | $ 10,815.13 | $119,273.64 |
| 17 | $4,528.54 | $11,252.07 | $108,021.57 |
| 18 | $4,073.95 | $11,706.65 | $96,314.92 |
| 19 | $3,601.01 | $12,179.59 | $84,135.33 |
| 20 | $3,108.95 | $ 12,671.66 | $71,463.67 |
| 21 | $2,597.02 | $13,183.59 | $58,280.08 |
| 22 | $2,064.40 | $13,716.20 | $44,563.88 |
| 23 | $1,510.27 | $14,270.34 | $30,293.54 |
| 24 | $933.74 | $14,846.86 | $15,446.68 |
| 25 | $333.93 | $$15,446.68 | $0.00 |
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