📊 Mortgage Payment Calculator · 2026

$700,000 Mortgage
at 5.5% Interest Rate

5.5% is excellent — historically low
Monthly payment, 15 vs 30 year comparison, total interest, and what salary you need to qualify.
Monthly P&I Payment · 5.5% · 30-Year · 20% Down
$3,180
Loan amount: $560,000 · Down payment: $140,000
$140,000
Down (20%)
$584,800
Total Interest
$1,144,800
Total Paid (30yr)
$136K+
Salary Needed

15-Year vs 30-Year at 5.5%

30-Year Fixed
$3,180/mo
Total: $1,144,800
Interest: $584,800
15-Year Fixed
$4,576/mo
Total: $823,680
Save: $321,120 in interest

How 5.5% Compares to Other Rates

Data Table
RateMonthly PaymentTotal Interest (30yr)vs 5.5%
→ 5.5%$3,180/mo$584,663← You are here

Banker's Take on 5.5%

This is a great rate by any historical standard. If you can lock this in, do it. At 5.5%, your monthly payment on a $700K home is $3,180. Over 30 years, you'll pay the bank $584,800 in interest alone — 104% of what you borrowed.

To qualify, most lenders want your total monthly debt (including this payment) to stay under 43% of your gross monthly income. That means earning at least $136K/year with no other significant debt.

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The part almost nobody publishes free

Prices and rates are widely reported. Whether a lender says yes is not. In the complete 2025 federal record, denial rates across the 100 largest FHA lenders ran from 1.8% to 78.7% — same programme, same year.

And it is not simply who applies where: standardizing on state, loan amount, income, debt-to-income and loan-to-value, applicant mix explains only a 2.7× range in expected outcomes.

Which lenders approve most → Your metro → Denied? →

CFPB HMDA 2025, computed by FinanceRateCalc. Covers the highest-volume lenders published per market, not all lenders. Historical observations, not predictions. CC BY 4.0, not independently reproduced.

The Denial Dispatch
One finding a week from the federal mortgage record.
One chart, three paragraphs, every Saturday. Measured, not assumed.
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FinanceRateCalc · Independent analysis of the complete federal HMDA record · Measured, not assumed. · No lender or AI vendor funds or previews this work.