BUY · FINANCING
The payment is a stack.
Price is one input. Rate, cash, insurance, taxes, district levies, HOA, and reserves decide whether the house fits.THE PAYMENT STACK
WHAT CAN I AFFORD · THE WHOLE MONTHLY COST
A rate is one line.
The payment is five.
Put in the house, your down payment and the rate a lender quoted you. Every other number below is an example you can change. Seller-paid closing costs and rate buydowns are often part of a negotiation, so the last panel shows what a concession does each way it can be spent.THE LOAN
THE REST OF THE STACK · EXAMPLES, EDIT THEM
FULL MONTHLY COST
$3,511/MONTH- Principal and interest
- $2,844
- Property tax
- $229
- Homeowners insurance
- $250
- Association dues
- $0
- Mortgage insurance
- $188
- Loan $450,000 at 6.5%, 30 years
- $3,511
WITH A 2-1 BUYDOWN
WHY NOW · WHEN THE SELLER PAYS
A concession can lower the cash, the first two years, or the rate.
THE WORK
Four parts move together.
- 01CASH
What leaves before closing?
Down payment, earnest money, inspection, appraisal, lender costs, prepaid items, and reserves.
- 02MONTHLY
What repeats?
Principal, interest, property tax, insurance, HOA, district tax, and utilities.
- 03STRUCTURE
Which term buys flexibility?
Compare rate, points, credits, buydowns, mortgage insurance, and prepayment assumptions together.
- 04STRESS
What happens after closing?
Keep room for systems, maintenance, moving, and the first Colorado season.
The letter is not the budget.
A pre-approval says what a lender will fund. It does not say what the house will cost to own. The lender's estimate usually carries last year's tax bill, a placeholder for insurance and no reserve at all, and in Colorado those are the lines that move. The real monthly cost is built from six parts: principal and interest, property tax, homeowners insurance, any metro district levy, HOA dues, and the money you set aside for the house itself.
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On a 30-year fixed loan the rate decides most of the payment and is fixed the day you lock. Borrow $495,000 at 6.76 percent and principal and interest come to about $3,214 a month before anything else (rate VERIFIED: Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, 30-year fixed average, via FRED, September 10, 2026). Points, lender credits and temporary buydowns move that number in both directions, so compare whole quotes from the same day.
The lines that move by address.
Colorado taxes a fraction of the home's value, not the price. The county assessor sets an actual value, the state sets the residential assessment rate, and every taxing entity that touches the parcel adds its mill levy: county, city, school district, fire, library, and in a newer neighborhood a metropolitan district repaying the bonds that built the streets and water lines. One mill is one dollar per $1,000 of assessed value. That line is why two similar houses ten minutes apart can carry tax bills hundreds of dollars apart. Read the assessor's record for the parcel; the tax field on a listing is often last year's bill on last year's value.
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Get an insurance quote on the actual address and roof age before you write the offer. The figure in a lender's estimate is a placeholder, and along the Front Range the roof is what the insurer is pricing. HOA dues are a fixed line that can rise, and a condo or townhome adds the association's reserves and master policy deductible to the file. Then the reserve. A house spends money whether or not you budget for it. One percent of the price a year is a common working rule (PROBABLE); an older house or a hail-belt roof needs more.
A worked example.
Labeled PROBABLE. A $550,000 house in a metro district neighborhood, 10 percent down, $495,000 borrowed on a 30-year fixed at 6.76 percent (the one VERIFIED input, dated above). Every other line is a plausible Colorado assumption, not a quote.
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Principal and interest, $3,214. Mortgage insurance at 10 percent down, about $165 (0.4 percent of the loan a year). Property tax at a 6.7 percent assessment rate and 110 total mills: $550,000 × 6.7 percent is $36,850 assessed, times 110 mills is $4,054 a year, $338 a month. Insurance, $250. HOA, $60. Reserve at one percent a year, $458.
Total: about $4,485 a month, against a lender estimate that likely showed $3,214 plus lighter tax and insurance lines. The gap is the part the letter cannot see. Take the same house out of the district, at 75 total mills, and the tax line drops to $230: $108 a month for the same address, from one levy.
THE HANDOFF
Every line above resolves at one parcel.
The levy, the assessed value, the roof age, the association. Send the address and I will build the stack for that house, with the source beside each line, before you write the offer.RUN MY ADDRESS →THE NEXT USEFUL PAGE
Keep the decision moving in order.
CONTINUE →WHEN IT IS YOUR HOUSE