Home Equity Loan Calculator

Your equity and what you can borrow are two different numbers. The limit applies to every loan on the property at once, so your existing mortgage comes off the top — which is why the answer can be zero even when you have equity on paper.

This calculator answers a narrower question than how much equity you have: how much a lender would let you borrow against the home. Those are two different numbers, and the gap between them is the point. Equity is what the home is worth minus what you still owe — 190,000 on the default figures. The borrowing limit works the other way round. The lender fixes a combined loan-to-value percentage and applies it to the value first: 85 % of 450,000 is 382,500. Every loan already secured on the property then comes off that ceiling rather than off the value, so the 260,000 still outstanding leaves 122,500. Raise the limit to 90 % and the same home yields 145,000; where the mortgage already exceeds the ceiling the answer is zero, because a negative allowance would mean nothing. What the figure is not: it is a ceiling, not an offer, and it carries no monthly payment and no interest cost — the rate and term you would be quoted do not move this number, which is why they are not asked for. The limitation that matters most is the valuation. The value you enter is your own estimate; the one that sets the limit is the lender's, from their own appraisal. Treat the result as a first approximation and expect the real ceiling to follow their number rather than yours.