We Priced Mortgages for a Living. Then We Built a Better Calculator.
TruePITI is an independent mortgage calculator built by people who spent years inside loan pricing, risk, and underwriting. No signup, no sales calls, no teaser rates — just the full monthly cost, including the parts most calculators hide.
Our Story
In early 2024, James Chen was reviewing mortgage files at a large U.S. lender and kept seeing the same pattern: first-time buyers walking in with a budget based on a payment number that was nowhere near what they'd actually owe. The teaser quote showed principal and interest. It left out PMI, property taxes, and homeowners insurance — which together can add $400 to $900 a month on a typical loan.
Worse, the popular calculators these buyers used did the same thing. Either they hid PMI entirely, or they used a generic tax rate that had nothing to do with the buyer's county. So a family shopping on a $4,000 monthly budget would find out at closing that their real payment was $4,600.
James Chen called Sarah, a fintech engineer he'd worked with, and they spent the next six months building the calculator they wished existed: one that shows the complete PITI picture — principal, interest, property taxes, homeowners insurance, and PMI — computed in the browser with nothing sent to a server. TruePITI launched in late 2024 and has been free since day one.
Full-PITI Accuracy
Taxes, insurance, PMI, and HOA — the costs other calculators leave out of the quote.
Private by Design
Every calculation runs in your browser. No account, no email, no data collection.
Analyst-Grade Guides
FHA, VA, USDA, refinancing, DTI, escrow — written by people who've priced these loans.
Meet the Team
James Chen — Founder & Principal Analyst
Spent a decade in mortgage risk and pricing analytics across two of the country's largest retail lenders. His job was modeling what borrowers could actually afford — including the costs most quote sheets leave off. He designs the TruePITI calculation engine and reviews every rate article before it publishes.
Sarah Mitchell — Head of Product & Engineering
Former fintech engineer who built loan-origination tooling at a publicly traded company. She led the architecture that keeps every TruePITI calculation on-device — no server, no tracking, no data leaks — and ships the calculators, the DTI gauge, and the amortization tables you see on the site.
Founder backgrounds are described in good faith. TruePITI is an independent educational project: no team member is a licensed mortgage originator, broker, or financial advisor, and nothing on this site is personalized financial advice.
Technical Review Board
TruePITI's calculators and methodology are developed and checked internally against CFPB-standard formulas and primary source data (Freddie Mac PMMS, HUD, FHA). We do not currently claim third-party expert review; an external credentialed review is planned before any "expert-reviewed" label is used.
Editorial Integrity & Methodology
The numbers on TruePITI come from primary sources, not press releases:
- •Rate benchmarks are synced from the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) and Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED)
- •Amortization, DTI, and PMI formulas follow CFPB-standard calculation methods, computed locally in your browser
- •All calculator algorithms are audited quarterly against Freddie Mac and FHA formulas
- •Advertisers have no input into rate data, calculator logic, or editorial content — full stop
How TruePITI Stays Free
We keep TruePITI free by working with mortgage partners. When you use a link on our site — like one to Better or Rocket Mortgage — we may be compensated. That doesn't change the math: your PITI, DTI, and PMI calculations run right in your browser, using the numbers you enter, not ours. We have no incentive to skew the results, because we don't sell loans and we never share your information.
What We Offer
Full PITI Mortgage Calculator
Principal, interest, taxes, insurance, PMI, and HOA — all in one place
Amortization Schedule
Full printable payment breakdown by month and year
Affordability Calculator
How much house can you really afford?
DTI & 28/36 Gauge
Debt-to-income analysis with lender-style thresholds
FHA, VA & USDA Support
Loan-type-specific fees: MIP, funding fees, guarantee fees
County-Level Rate Data
State and county benchmarks across all 50 states
Company
© 2026 TruePITI. All rights reserved. TruePITI is a Delaware-registered independent publisher of financial education tools. It is not a mortgage lender, broker, or financial advisor. All products and services referenced on this site are trademarks of their respective owners. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
Important Disclaimer
TruePITI is an independent educational website. We are not a mortgage lender, broker, or financial advisor. All calculators provide estimates for educational purposes only — actual rates, payments, and terms depend on your lender, credit profile, and local market conditions. Outbound links to lender marketplaces are informational; where a product link may earn us a commission (currently only Amazon Associates book links), it is labeled. No commercial arrangement ever affects our calculator results or editorial content. Please consult a licensed mortgage professional for advice tailored to your situation.