Mortgage tools
Should I Refinance? Break-Even Calculator
Compare the mortgage you already have against a replacement — including its costs, its term reset and what you would still owe at the end of the period you plan to keep it.
Comparing discount-point options on a NEW loan instead? That is Rate Horizon.
The mortgage you have now
The mortgage you are considering
Enter a rate a lender has actually quoted you, or check today's real Florida pricing first.
Monthly change
$283 a month lower
Over 7 years this structure comes out about $14,269 ahead in total, once the costs and the remaining balance are counted.
Paid at closing, so it is not financed.
Cost divided by the monthly reduction. It ignores the term reset — the total below does not.
Payments made during the period, plus any cost paid at closing, plus the balance still owed at the end.
How that total is built
A longer term pays principal down more slowly, so more is still owed at the end of the period.
The new 30-year term is longer than the 27 years left on your current loan. A longer term lowers the payment on its own, separately from the rate.
Planning estimate only — not a loan offer, rate quote, approval, or commitment to lend. Rates you enter are assumptions, not APRs.
How to read this result
- Break-even and total cost answer different questions
- Break-even is cost divided by the monthly reduction: how long until you have got the money back. It says nothing about the term. Total cost counts the payments you make, the costs you pay, and what you still owe at the end — which is how a fresh 30-year term shows up.
- A longer term lowers the payment on its own
- If you are 13 years into a 30-year loan and take a new 30-year loan, the payment drops even at the same rate. That is not the rate helping you — it is 13 years of principal being pushed back out in front of you.
- This is not Rate Horizon
- Rate Horizon compares two pricing structures for the same new loan and asks whether paying discount points is worth it. This page asks whether replacing the loan you have is worth it at all.
Other calculators
Assumptions, method and disclosures
What this calculator assumed
- A fixed rate on both loans, at the rates you entered.
- Both loans fully amortising, with no balloon and no prepayment.
- The years remaining you entered are the years remaining on the current loan, matched to the balance you entered.
- Discount points charged as a percentage of the NEW loan amount, not of the current balance.
- No escrow, tax or insurance change is modelled — only principal, interest and any mortgage insurance you entered.
How the numbers are calculated
Principal and interest only. Property taxes, homeowners insurance, HOA or CDD dues, and any applicable mortgage insurance or funding fee are not included and will increase the actual monthly payment.
Total cost over the period is the payments actually made during it, plus any cost paid at closing rather than financed, plus the balance still owed at the end. Adding the remaining balance is what makes two different terms comparable: without it, a loan that is cheaper monthly only because it stretches the term looks unambiguously better, and it is not.
Simple break-even is the estimated refinance cost divided by the monthly reduction, rounded up to the next whole month. When the payment does not fall, no break-even is shown — because there is not one.
This is a planning estimate, not a loan offer, rate quote, approval, pre-approval, or commitment to lend.
Interest rates you enter here are assumptions, not APRs.
Results depend entirely on the inputs and assumptions above.
Your official Loan Estimate and Closing Disclosure control the actual terms of any loan.
Mortgage Expert, Inc. originates loans on Florida property only. Minimum loan amount $100,000.