About Mortgage Costs Guide
Most mortgage content is written for one of two people: someone who needs “amortization” defined, or someone who already sells mortgages for a living. Very little is written for the person in between — a homeowner who understands the basics and wants an actual number.
That’s who this is for. The test we apply to every page is whether it answers the question with arithmetic instead of a range.
How the numbers are produced
Every figure on this site is calculated rather than quoted from another article, and the inputs behind it are stated on the page. Where we assume something — a rate, a fee level, a tax bracket — we say so and label it as an assumption, because an assumption presented as a fact is how most financial content goes wrong.
Rate benchmarks come from the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, with the survey week named. Tax treatment follows IRS Publication 936 and the associated regulations. Servicing and escrow rules follow RESPA and CFPB guidance. State income tax rates come from the Tax Foundation’s annual survey. Where a page relies on reporting rather than a primary source — a policy proposal, for instance — the outlet is named in the sources note at the foot of that page.
What we cover
- What’s deductible, under what conditions, and how much it is actually worth
- Home equity borrowing and cash-out refinancing, from the tax side
- Reducing a monthly payment — PMI cancellation, escrow analysis, discount points
- Buying and selling costs, and how much of the bill is set by your state
- Proposals that would change what a mortgage costs, clearly marked as proposals
What we deliberately don’t do
We don’t sell mortgages, broker them, or take referral fees from lenders, so no page here is steering you toward a product. We don’t give personalised advice — nothing on this site knows your full financial picture, and anything involving a significant decision should be checked with a CPA or a tax attorney who does.
We also try not to manufacture optimism. When the honest answer is that a thing isn’t worth doing, the page says so. The mortgage interest deduction calculator is the clearest example: for most households the deduction is worth nothing, and it tells you that rather than showing you a large number you’ll never receive.
Corrections
Tax law changes and rates move, so pages carry the date they were last reviewed. If you find an error — a stale figure, a rule we’ve read wrong, a state that’s changed its treatment — tell us and we’ll fix it and note the change on the page.
Write to hello@mortgagecostsguide.com. Corrections get read first.