Calculator · the part most tools skip
When does the refinance pay for itself?
Break-even is closing costs divided by the monthly saving. The number that matters more sits underneath it: what happens to total interest when you restart the clock. Both are shown here.
Your current loan does not have thirty years left on it. Most refinance calculators compare a new 30-year loan against a new 30-year loan and quietly ignore the years you have already paid. This one measures against the term you actually have remaining, which is why the total-interest line sometimes goes the wrong way even when the payment drops.
Break-even on the closing costs
11 months
Costs recovered inside three years
- Current principal & interest
- $2,851
- New principal & interest
- $2,425
- Monthly change (all-in)
- $426
- New loan amount
- $404,500
- Upfront program fee
- $0
- Monthly mortgage insurance
- $0
- Loan-to-value
- 80.9% (cap 95%)
What the term reset does
- Interest left on the current loan (28 yrs)
- $558,094
- Interest on the new loan (30 yrs)
- $468,565
- Lifetime difference
- $89,529
The new term does not add interest here — the new loan costs $89,529 less in interest than finishing the current one.
Conventional rate-and-term refinance likely makes sense. Break-even in 11 months, $89,529 total saved.
Principal, interest and mortgage insurance only — property taxes and homeowners insurance carry over either way, so they cancel out of the comparison. Estimates only, not a quote, an offer of credit, or a determination of eligibility.
Reading the two numbers together
Break-even
Closing costs divided by the monthly saving. It answers one question: how long you have to stay before the refinance stops being a net cost. Under three years is comfortable. Past five, you are betting on not moving.
Lifetime difference
Interest remaining on the loan you have, minus interest on the loan you would take. Going from 28 years left to a fresh 30 adds two years of payments, and that can erase a rate improvement entirely.
When they disagree
A refinance can break even in 14 months and still cost more over the life of the loan. That is not a contradiction — it is the difference between cash flow and total cost. Matching the new term to the years you have left resolves it.
Net tangible benefit
FHA Streamline and VA IRRRL both have a regulatory benefit test the file has to pass before it can close. Pick either program above and the check runs, with the rule it is applying.
About the starting rate. The rate control arrives pre-filled so the tool has something to calculate with. That number is a placeholder — not a quote, not a rate we have offered you, and not an offer of credit. Replace it with the rate you have actually been quoted.
For reference, the 30-year fixed average in the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, retrieved from FRED (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis) (series MORTGAGE30US) was 6.58% for the week ending July 23, 2026, retrieved July 29, 2026. That is a national average across lenders, so no individual borrower was offered it, and it is a note rate rather than an APR — the survey does not publish APRs, and your APR will be higher than any note rate once costs are included. Your own rate depends on your credit profile, loan amount, loan-to-value, occupancy, property type, lock period and program. See the 52-week context.
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Here’s your estimated payment — want Jeff to check if it’s actually the right structure?
A calculator can tell you what a payment costs. It cannot tell you whether the term, the down payment, or the loan type is the right one for how long you plan to hold it. That part is a conversation, and it is usually a short one.
Jeff Shin · NMLS #1041652 · Barrett Financial Group, L.L.C. NMLS #181106