Mortgage Guides
Every figure below comes from the same data the calculators use. The state rate tables, the county tax rates and the insurance estimates are not a second copy kept in step by hand — a rate update rewrites them.
Six guides, written from the same numbers the calculators price with. Where a figure comes from a published source — an ACS table, Freddie Mac's weekly survey, a HUD mortgagee letter — the guide names it and links to it; where the number is this site's own calculation, the method is on the methodology page.
They are grouped by the decision they belong to: what owning a house costs where you live, how much cash it takes to get in, and what the loan itself should be.
Property taxes and insurance
Property tax rates for all 50 states and DC ranked by effective rate, with the median annual bill and how the tax is actually calculated.
Average homeowners insurance by state for all 50 states and DC, from the highest premiums in Oklahoma, Nebraska and Florida to the lowest in Hawaii.
Down payments and PMI
Twenty percent down is not a rule, it is where PMI stops. What a smaller down payment costs each month, and when it is worth waiting to have more.
When private mortgage insurance can come off a conventional loan: the 78% automatic rule, the 80% request, appraisals, and what PMI costs each month.
Loan programs and terms
FHA and conventional mortgages compared on down payment, credit score and mortgage insurance — including when the insurance stops, which is what decides it.
What a 15-year mortgage costs per month against a 30-year at today's rates, how much interest it saves, and what the 20-year term in between looks like.
How these guides are made
Nothing here is a round-up of other people's advice. The tables are this site's own county and state data, sorted; the mortgage rate is Freddie Mac's weekly survey, imported rather than typed; the loan rules are quoted from the HUD handbook and Fannie Mae's selling guide. Every guide states the date of the data behind it, and the reviewed date at the foot of the page moves whenever a figure does.
Last reviewed Oct 25 2026