About ClearRate

Why this site exists

Most free mortgage calculators are lead-generation tools. The calculation is the bait; the product is your contact details, sold on to lenders who then call you. That business model shapes the software — it's why so many calculators want your email before showing a result, and why some quietly understate a monthly payment to make a purchase feel more achievable than it is.

ClearRate is built the other way round. There's no lead form because we don't sell leads. The calculators run entirely in your browser, so the numbers you type never reach us in the first place. There's nothing to unsubscribe from, because there was never anything to subscribe to.

How the calculators work

Every calculator uses the standard fixed-rate amortization formula — no proprietary adjustments, no smoothing, no flattering defaults. Your monthly figure is principal and interest, plus one twelfth of the annual property levy, plus one twelfth of home insurance, plus any monthly HOA or service charge.

Country differences are modelled properly rather than relabelled. Canadian mortgages default to a five-year term inside a twenty-five year amortization, and CMHC default insurance is calculated against its real published premium schedule. UK Council Tax and Australian council rates aren't percentages of purchase price, so we don't pretend they are — they're entered as flat annual amounts. Australian LMI is flagged as likely to apply rather than given an invented premium.

On US state pages the calculator starts from that state's real effective property-tax rate. That's what makes a Texas calculation genuinely differ from a Hawaii one, rather than being the same page with a different name on it.

The full formulas, sources and limitations are written out on our methodology page. We'd rather you checked our work than trusted it.

Where the numbers come from

Default rates for all 4 countries are real published figures with named sources — Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey via FRED for the United States, the Bank of Canada's Valet API for Canada, and the Reserve Bank of Australia's housing lending tables for Australia. Each carries the date it was last refreshed.

Where we don't have a trustworthy source, we say so on the page rather than filling the gap. Our UK rate is currently labelled unverified for exactly that reason. Admitting a gap is cheaper than inventing a number to cover it.

A default rate is a starting value, never a quote. Only a lender can tell you your rate — edit the field to match what you've actually been offered.

What we deliberately don't estimate

A calculator can always produce a number. The question is whether that number means anything. These are left to you rather than guessed at:

• Home insurance premiums, which depend on the specific property far more than on its region.
• HOA, strata and service charges, which are set per development with no meaningful average.
• Australian LMI premiums, which are insurer-specific and genuinely too variable to compute.
• Per-location figures below the level where the underlying numbers actually differ. We generate location pages down to that level and stop there.

We also publish no "best lender" rankings, no lender reviews, and no rate comparison tables. We have no lender relationships and no way to verify such claims independently, so we stay out of that territory entirely.

How it's funded

Display advertising, and nothing else. We don't sell your data — we don't collect it. We take no affiliate commissions on mortgages, publish no sponsored content, and accept no payment to alter the calculators, the guides, or the data behind them.

An advertisement on this site is not a recommendation. Our editorial policy sets out how content and advertising are kept apart.

The guides

Alongside the calculators we publish plain-English explainers on how home financing actually works — amortization, PMI cancellation, escrow accounts, conforming and jumbo limits, refinancing arithmetic, and the rest. They exist because a number without an explanation isn't much use, and because the mechanics that decide what a mortgage costs are genuinely learnable.

You can read them all in the guides section.

Who runs this

ClearRate is independently run, and is not owned by, funded by, or affiliated with any lender, broker, or financial institution. Questions about methodology, sourcing, or a figure you think is wrong are answered directly — see contact.

Corrections

If a number looks wrong for your area, please tell us. Reader corrections on local property-tax rates are especially welcome — statewide averages are a starting point, and local knowledge beats them. Substantive corrections are reflected in the figure's update date; we'd rather visibly change a number than quietly leave a wrong one in place.

One thing worth stating plainly: we are not a lender, broker, or financial adviser, and nothing here is financial advice. Please read the disclaimer before acting on any estimate this site produces.