What Is the Average U.S. Mortgage Payment?

What impacts a monthly mortgage payment?

There are multiple variables that affect your monthly mortgage payment. These factors can include potential taxes and insurance payments that came with your loan, the frequency of your mortgage payments, the type of mortgage you get, the size of your down payment, your interest rate and much more. What state you live in also impacts your mortgage payment as this determines local real estate values, local fees and more.

The main components of a mortgage payment are referred to as PITI — principal, interest, taxes and insurance. Property taxes vary by jurisdiction and will fluctuate based on the value of your home. If the value of your home appreciates, the property taxes you have to pay may also increase.

Homeowners insurance may fluctuate, depending on whether or not you choose to adjust coverage(s). In addition, PMI — private mortgage insurance — is required on a conventional loan if your down payment is less than 20%. This is required to protect the mortgage lender from a default on the loan.

Factors affecting your mortgage payment include loan amount, interest rate, taxes and insurance.

If you get a fixed-rate mortgage, your interest rate will not change — unless you refinance. However, if you get an adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM), your interest rate will change regularly after a set number of years has elapsed. If interest rates go down, your mortgage rate will also decrease. However, the opposite is also true. The type of home loan — conventional, VA, USDA, FHA — will also impact the details of your mortgage payment.

“A lower down payment or higher interest rate may result in a higher monthly payment. Depending on the type of loan, borrowers may also have to pay property taxes and homeowners insurance as part of their monthly mortgage payment,” explained Malcolm-Wiley Floyd, co-founder and CEO of Stairs Financial.

» MORE: FHA vs. VA loans

What’s included in your monthly mortgage payment?

Your mortgage payment is a function of several factors. Some factors come into play before you even start making payments, such as the type of mortgage you take out and the size of your down payment. On paper, your mortgage will look something like this:

» MORE: Here’s why buying a home is getting harder and more expensive

Median vs. average mortgage payment

The median monthly mortgage payment is different from the average monthly mortgage payment because of the different way each is calculated. The median value is the midpoint in a data set, while the average is the sum of a dataset divided by the total number of values.

For example, if five values are collected with values of $1,000, $1,500, $1,650, $3,000, and $5,000, the median value is $1,650 (the middle number when they are put in order from lowest to highest), whereas the average value is $2,430 (the sum of all values divided by five).

The average U.S. mortgage payment

It is difficult to calculate a precise average mortgage payment, as there is no single authoritative source that provides that information. However, data from the Federal Reserve states that in 2025, the median U.S. mortgage payment was $1,500.

» MORE: How to lower your monthly mortgage payment

Average mortgage payment by region

Below is a table with the most recent median monthly mortgage payments by region in the U.S. The data comes from the Federal Reserve.

Average mortgage payment by county

Unsurprisingly, median mortgage payments tend to correlate directly with home prices. The price of a house can vary widely within a region, so it makes sense to get more granular when comparing average mortgage payments. Mortgage costs in a given area often align with regional trends, but that’s not always the case.

For example, the western U.S. includes some of the nation’s highest mortgage costs, often in heavily populated areas with high overall living costs, such as California’s Marin and San Mateo counties. But the West is also home to low-density rural jurisdictions like Apache County, Arizona, where median mortgage payments fall well below the national median.

The following tables highlight the counties with the highest and lowest median mortgage payments in the U.S. Data comes from the National Association of Realtors.

Bottom line

There is no correct answer for what the right mortgage payment is, as that will depend on personal factors. The type of loan, the loan duration and the size of the down payment are all factors that will impact your mortgage payment. To get the lowest mortgage rate for your purchase or refinance, shop with various lenders, paying particular attention to the APR, which is the total cost of borrowing.

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