The fundamental mortgage characteristics, such as the Total Amount borrowed, the Interest Rate and the Term of the mortgage, are not the only factors to determine your monthly payments. Taxes, insurance, PMI and the value of your home also have their say.

Let's see what happens if you borrow $250,000.00 for the period of 30 years with an interest rate of 5.000%. With the value of your home of $300,000.00, your property taxes of $3,000.00 per year and your insurance of $1,500.00 per year, you should expect a total monthly payment of $1,821.22 - namely $1,342.05 towards the actual loan, $250.00 as real estate taxes and $125.00 towards insurance.

As the loan to value ratio of your mortgage is 83.33%, you will also have to pay PMI for 31 months, i.e. another $104.17 a month. Don't forget to drop the PMI after all the obligations of month 31 of the loan term are completed. You may need to have a re-appraisal done for that, though.