Why MortgageWhy exists
I'm a first-time buyer. When I started looking at mortgages, I found a process that hasn't really changed in decades — and one that's genuinely hard to navigate the first time through.
There are so many moving parts that it's difficult to tell whether an offer is actually good. Rate, points, lender credits, closing costs, escrow, insurance, PMI — each one changes the number, and they're rarely laid out in a way you can compare.
So I spent time learning how it works: reading the rules, researching the market, and talking with people who work in it. MortgageWhy is what came out of that.
I built it for people like me — so that one of the most important financial commitments of your life is a little easier to understand.
What this is, and what it isn't
I'm not a mortgage professional, and this isn't advice. MortgageWhy doesn't sell leads, take money from lenders, or recommend one.
What it does: shows the arithmetic so you can check it yourself, runs every calculation in your browser from numbers you enter, and links every rule to the official CFPB source it comes from.
If a number here doesn't match your servicer's document, trust the document — and tell us, so we can fix it.