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Loan-to-Value (LTV) Calculator

LTV is the ratio a lender uses to size up the collateral: how much is being lent against how much the property is worth. This calculator solves it in either direction, adds the combined ratio when there is more than one loan on the property, and shows where you land against the thresholds that decide mortgage insurance.

Loan-to-Value
Solve for the ratio, the loan, the value, or the combined total

Your LTV will appear here

Pick a mode, fill in the two figures you know, and the third one falls out.

Two different tests, often confused

Loan-to-Value vs. our House Affordability Calculator: LTV measures collateral risk, loan against value, at a price that is already known. It answers "will I owe PMI, and do I qualify for a better rate tier?". Affordability measures capacity, income against debt, and answers "what price fits my income?". One property can be perfectly fine on LTV and completely out of reach on DTI, and the reverse happens too.

LTV says nothing at all about what the payment will be. A 60% LTV on an expensive house can cost far more each month than 90% on a cheap one. For the actual monthly figure, use our Mortgage Calculator, which handles principal and interest along with taxes, insurance and PMI.

Quick Answer

LTV = (loan amount / property appraised value) x 100. Above 80% you normally pay PMI on a conventional loan; at 80% you can request cancellation and at 78% the servicer must end it automatically. FHA goes to 96.5%, while VA and USDA can sometimes reach 100%. CLTV runs the same sum with every loan secured on the property added together, so a first mortgage plus a HELOC.

How It Works: Formula & Variables

The three rearrangements

LTV = (LA / PAV) x 100
LA = (LTV x PAV) / 100
PAV = LA / (LTV / 100)

LA
Loan amount.
PAV
Property appraised value. On a purchase, lenders take the lower of the contract price and the appraisal.
LTV
The ratio as a percentage.

On a purchase the same thing can be written as loan / purchase price x 100, where the purchase price is your down payment plus the loan. That version is often easier, because those are the two numbers you have in front of you when you are working out how much deposit to put down.

Combined LTV

CLTV = ((first mortgage + second mortgages + HELOCs) / current value) x 100

CLTV measures the total balance of all loans secured by a property compared to its current value. A home worth $400,000 carrying a $280,000 first mortgage has an LTV of 70%. Add a $40,000 HELOC and the CLTV becomes 80%. The first number has not changed, but the second is what a lender considering another advance will look at.

US thresholds

LTV What happens
above 80%PMI is normally required on a conventional loan.
80%You gain the right to request that PMI be cancelled, measured on the original value.
78%The servicer must terminate PMI automatically. It ends no later than the month after the midpoint of the amortization schedule, so after 15 years on a 30-year loan.
96.5%The maximum on an FHA loan.
100%VA and USDA loans can sometimes finance the full value.

Worked Examples

Example 1: a US purchase sitting exactly on the 80% line

Appraised value $400,000, mortgage $320,000. LTV = (320,000 / 400,000) x 100 = 80%. The down payment is $80,000, which is 20% of the price, and no PMI is charged.

Change one number and the picture shifts. A $360,000 mortgage on the same house is 90% LTV, which puts PMI firmly in play. The house is identical. Only the deposit moved, and that alone decides whether an extra monthly cost attaches to the loan for years.

Example 2: a UK first-time buyer with an average deposit

The average first-time buyer in England puts down about 22%, roughly £63,855 alongside an average loan of £226,397. Those two together imply a property of about £290,252.

  • LTV = (226,397 / 290,252) x 100 = 78.0%
  • Just under the 80% band, and comfortably better priced than the 85% to 95% tiers

Run it the other way and the contrast is sharp. At the 5% minimum deposit available through the Mortgage Guarantee Scheme, the same property would need a £275,739 loan at 95% LTV, with a higher rate and tighter acceptance criteria attached. The gap between those two positions is what four extra years of saving tends to be worth.

Key Concepts

LTV is about the lender's downside: it measures how much of the property's value is at risk if the loan goes bad and the house has to be sold. That is why the ratio, rather than your income, decides mortgage insurance.

Original value, not today's value, governs PMI: cancellation at 80% and automatic termination at 78% are both measured against the original value, meaning the lower of the contract price and the appraisal when you bought. A rising market does not shift those numbers on its own.

UK lenders price in tiers rather than pass or fail: there is no British equivalent of the PMI line. What you get instead is a rate that steps up as you cross 60%, 75%, 80%, 85%, 90% and 95%, so landing just under a band is worth real money.

CLTV is the number that matters once there is a second loan: a HELOC does not change your first mortgage's LTV at all, but it changes what any lender will do with you next.

Common Mistakes

Confusing LTV with DTI: LTV is collateral risk, loan against property value. DTI is capacity, debt against income. They are separate tests measuring separate things, and lenders apply both.

Using today's market value for PMI cancellation: the threshold is measured on the original value, the lower of contract price and appraisal at the time of purchase. Assuming appreciation counts toward it leads to a disappointing phone call with the servicer.

Leaving a second mortgage or HELOC out of the sum: the first-loan LTV looks healthy while the combined position is nowhere near it. If there is more than one loan on the property, CLTV is the number to quote.

Treating a low LTV as a low payment: the ratio says nothing about affordability. It only describes how the loan compares with the asset behind it.

Frequently Asked Questions

LTV = (loan amount / property appraised value) x 100. On a purchase it is the loan divided by the purchase price x 100, where the purchase price is your down payment plus the loan. Both arrive at the same place, so use whichever pair of numbers you actually have.

Your LTV should not exceed 80%. If it does, you need to make a bigger down payment or choose a cheaper property. That 80% line is where private mortgage insurance starts on a conventional loan, so it is the first target worth aiming at.

Above 80% LTV on a conventional loan. Private mortgage insurance covers the lender rather than you, and it is charged monthly on the loan balance, so it makes an already larger loan more expensive to carry.

You can request cancellation once you reach 80% of the original value. At 78% the servicer has to terminate it automatically, without you asking. Either way it must end no later than the month after the midpoint of your amortization schedule, which is month 181 on a 30-year loan.

LTV looks at one loan against the value of the property. CLTV measures the total balance of all loans secured by a property compared to its current value, so a first mortgage plus any second mortgage or HELOC. A home can look comfortable on LTV and much less so on CLTV.

Up to 95% through the permanent Mortgage Guarantee Scheme, which has supported a 5% minimum deposit for first-time buyers since 2025. The best rates generally sit at 60% LTV or below, with pricing stepping up through the 75%, 80%, 85%, 90% and 95% tiers. There is no single portfolio-wide LTV limit on UK lenders the way the US has fixed PMI thresholds.
Last reviewed 2026-07-28. For educational purposes only — not professional advice.

Related Calculators

House Affordability Calculator

The capacity test that runs alongside this one: what price your income supports.

Mortgage Calculator

The monthly payment, including PMI once your LTV puts you above 80%.

Amortization Calculator

Track the balance down toward the 80% and 78% marks month by month.

Loan Calculator

Payment and interest on any fixed-rate loan.

Debt Payoff Calculator

Clearing a HELOC brings your CLTV back down.

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