Home Equity Loan Calculator

How this result is built

Size a fixed home equity loan and check it against a combined loan-to-value cap.

A home equity loan is a second fixed loan, not a revolving line. The payment uses ordinary amortization. The more useful check is combined loan-to-value: the first mortgage plus the new loan, divided by the home value.

What the opening example is for

The cap defaults to 80% because many lenders cluster there. If your quote allows a different combined LTV, change the field. The page will say when the amount you asked for sits above the cap.

The walkthrough below uses the numbers already sitting in Home Equity Loan Calculator. Press Calculate and the headline should match this page. Then put your own figures in. The math does not run until you press the button, and Clear hides the result.

What each field is doing

The “Home value” line on Home Equity Loan Calculator starts at $500,000.00. The other fields stay put while you change this one. That is the clean way to see what this line is doing inside the result.

Home Equity Loan Calculator treats “Current mortgage balance” as its own entry, and the form opens with $260,000.00. If the label is a rate, type the annual figure the contract uses. If it is money, type the amount that will actually move, not a rounded hope.

Before you replace it, “Equity loan amount” reads $40,000.00 on Home Equity Loan Calculator. Leave that figure only when it matches the statement, the quote, or the plan you are testing. Press Calculate after the edit so the chart and the schedule move with it.

The remaining fields

Look at “Combined LTV cap” first if you are checking Home Equity Loan Calculator: the filled value is 80%. A round example is useful for learning the page. It is a poor substitute for the number on your own paperwork, so replace it and run the form again.

The “Equity loan rate” line on Home Equity Loan Calculator starts at 8.50%. The other fields stay put while you change this one. That is the clean way to see what this line is doing inside the result.

Home Equity Loan Calculator treats “Term” as its own entry, and the form opens with 15. If the label is a rate, type the annual figure the contract uses. If it is money, type the amount that will actually move, not a rounded hope.

The opening result, line by line

Press Calculate on the opening form and Monthly payment is $393.90. That is the number the rest of this section is talking about.

Estimated room at the LTV cap is $140,000.00 when you run the opening figures on Home Equity Loan Calculator. That line is part of the same calculation as the headline. It is not a second balance you can spend on top of the result. Change one input and press Calculate if you want to see whether this line moves.

On this opening pass, combined LTV if this loan is added is 60.00%. That line is part of the same calculation as the headline. It is not a second balance you can spend on top of the result. Change one input and press Calculate if you want to see whether this line moves.

Home Equity Loan Calculator reports that amount financed is $40,000.00. That line is part of the same calculation as the headline. It is not a second balance you can spend on top of the result. Change one input and press Calculate if you want to see whether this line moves.

Base payment is $393.90 when you run the opening figures on Home Equity Loan Calculator. That line is part of the same calculation as the headline. It is not a second balance you can spend on top of the result. Change one input and press Calculate if you want to see whether this line moves.

How those lines were produced

On this opening pass, total interest is $30,900.52. That line is part of the same calculation as the headline. It is not a second balance you can spend on top of the result. Change one input and press Calculate if you want to see whether this line moves.

Home Equity Loan Calculator reports that total paid is $70,900.52. That line is part of the same calculation as the headline. It is not a second balance you can spend on top of the result. Change one input and press Calculate if you want to see whether this line moves.

Payoff time is 15 years when you run the opening figures on Home Equity Loan Calculator. That line is part of the same calculation as the headline. It is not a second balance you can spend on top of the result. Change one input and press Calculate if you want to see whether this line moves.

A second pass changes only “Home value”, from $500,000.00 to $550,000.00. Monthly payment moves from $393.90 to $393.90. Nothing else on the form was edited, so the gap between those two results is the effect of that one field on Home Equity Loan Calculator. If the gap is tiny, this page is not very sensitive to that entry. If the gap is large, get that entry from a document before you plan around the result.

What this page will not claim

Home Equity Loan Calculator does not know your credit score, the county’s tax bill, or what an appraiser will say. Type the price, the loan, and the escrow you were quoted. Compare the payment with the loan estimate, and treat a small rounding difference as normal.

Home Equity Loan Calculator stops at its own formula. When the next question is different, open HELOC Calculator (Interest-only now, amortizing payment later.); Loan-to-Value Calculator (Loan, value, and the equity in between.); Mortgage Calculator (Principal, interest, tax, insurance, PMI, and HOA in one payment.). Do not add those results to this one as if they were the same kind of dollar.

Check the result before you use it

Start on Home Equity Loan Calculator by reading the labels, not the headline. The opening labels are Home value ($500,000.00), Current mortgage balance ($260,000.00), Equity loan amount ($40,000.00), Combined LTV cap (80%), Equity loan rate (8.50%), Term (15). If a label is not the fact you have, the result cannot turn into that fact later. The illustration on the form lands on $393.90. When you press Calculate and see that same figure, the button and this explanation are using one formula.

Change one field at a time. Write down the headline, edit a single line, and press Calculate again. A large jump means that line carries the result. A line that does not move is a line the formula ignores, which is a reason to confirm you opened the right page. Home Equity Loan Calculator is built for one job: A second loan, with the combined LTV beside it. The description on the page says the same thing in a sentence: Size a fixed home equity loan and check it against a combined loan-to-value cap.

When the paperwork disagrees

Then hold the headline next to a source outside the site. That source might be a loan estimate, an account statement, a pay stub, or the public limit named in the methodology. A few cents of difference on a long schedule is ordinary rounding. A different rate, a fee you never typed, or a tax the form does not ask for is not rounding. Correct the input. Do not average the page with the paperwork.

When the outside source still disagrees, Home Equity Loan Calculator has reached the edge of what it will claim. It will not phone a lender, pull a county record, or apply a credit you left blank. Send the calculator name, every input, and the result you expected through the contact page if you think the formula itself is wrong. Until that is settled, read $393.90 as the output of the fields above and nothing else.

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