Calculator Methodology

• Property state, county or city, and property type
• Estimated purchase price and any down payment you already have saved
• Household size and estimated annual household income
• First-time buyer status and intended occupancy
• Estimated credit score range and target loan program (FHA, conventional, VA, USDA)
• Optionally, a listing URL so we can pre-fill property details

• FHA loan limits — HUD CHUMS county limit file for the current calendar year.
• Income limits — HUD USER area median income and program limit tables, plus agency-published program limits where the agency sets its own.
• Program rules — assistance amount or percentage, structure (grant, forgivable, deferred, repayable), lien position, repayment and forgiveness terms, all taken from the administering agency's published documents.
• Market context — mortgage rate and house-price series from the Federal Reserve (FRED); county demographics from the Census Bureau. These are shown as context, not as your rate.
• Property data — when you supply a listing link, address and price come from the listing page; a value or rent estimate may come from RentCast's automated valuation model.

A program is shown when every hard rule it publishes is satisfied by your inputs: state and locality coverage, income limit for your household size and county, purchase-price or loan-limit cap, occupancy, first-time buyer requirement (including the standard three-year lookback where the agency uses one), eligible property type and minimum credit score. Programs whose requirement we cannot evaluate from your inputs are surfaced as "check with agency" rather than silently dropped. Results are ordered by assistance value to you, with grants and forgivable structures ranked above repayable liens of the same size.

• Assistance amount = the lesser of the program's stated maximum and its stated percentage of purchase price (or of the first-mortgage loan amount, where the agency defines it that way).
• Base loan amount = purchase price − your own down payment − assistance applied to down payment.
• FHA = base loan amount + upfront MIP financed (1.75%), with annual MIP added monthly per HUD's LTV and term matrix.
• Monthly principal and interest = standard amortization, P = L × r / (1 − (1 + r)^−n), where r is the monthly rate and n the number of payments.
• Cash to close = down payment + estimated closing costs − assistance applied to down payment and closing costs − seller or lender credits entered.
• Forgiveness is modeled on the agency's published schedule (for example straight-line over five years); deferred seconds accrue no payment until the trigger the agency defines — sale, refinance, payoff or end of term.

• Rates used in illustrations are sample rates, not quotes and not rate locks.
• Taxes and insurance are estimated from county-level averages unless you enter your own.
• Fixed-rate, fully amortizing first mortgage held to term with no extra payments.
• Primary residence occupancy unless the program explicitly allows otherwise.
• Assistance funds are assumed available; actual availability is agency-dependent.

These tools do not underwrite. They do not evaluate your credit report, debt-to-income ratio, asset documentation, residency status, property condition, appraisal outcome, HOA costs or title issues, and they cannot see whether a program's funding round is currently open. Automated value and rent figures are statistical estimates, not appraisals, and are not an offer on any property. Nothing produced by these tools is an offer of credit, an approval or a commitment to lend.

Rate and market series refresh weekly. HUD limit files are checked monthly and published after human review. Program rules are re-verified against the administering agency on a rolling schedule and whenever our source-watch job sees the agency's page change. Each page shows its updated, reviewed and data-refreshed dates; see data and verification.

If a figure looks wrong, tell us and we will trace it to its source and correct it. Email support@simplyapprovedmortgages.com or call 877-813-7219.