VA Loan Calculator

A VA loan is a mortgage backed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), available to eligible service members, veterans, and some surviving spouses. Its headline benefits are real money. You can usually borrow with zero down payment, and there is no Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI), the monthly surcharge conventional lenders add when you put down less than 20 percent. Skipping PMI alone can save a couple hundred dollars a month.

In exchange the VA charges a one-time funding fee, a percentage of the loan that keeps the program self-supporting. The rate depends on your down payment and on whether this is your first VA loan:

Those are the rates in force since 2023, and Congress has changed them before, so confirm the current table with your lender before you sign anything.

Look at what the second column does to a repeat borrower. On a $350,000 house with nothing down, the fee is 3.3% of $350,000, or $11,550. Put 5% down and you are borrowing $332,500 at 1.5%, so the fee falls to $4,988. The $17,500 you handed over bought a $6,562 discount on the fee, on top of the interest you save by borrowing less. That is a better return than most people expect from a down payment, and it only exists on second and later VA loans.

Veterans receiving compensation for a service-connected disability pay no fee at all, and neither do surviving spouses of veterans who died in service, so set the fee to zero if that applies to you. Most buyers roll the fee into the loan rather than pay it at closing, which this calculator lets you toggle.

The monthly payment itself is a standard amortized figure: the loan amount, the interest rate, and the term decide your principal and interest (P&I). Enter your numbers and you get that payment, the funding fee in dollars, the financed loan amount, and the total interest over the life of the loan.

One thing to remember. This is P&I only. Your real housing payment also includes property tax, homeowner’s insurance, and any homeowners association dues, none of which a VA loan removes.