How Much Is a Mortgage on a $600,000 House? Monthly Payment in 2026

The same $600,000 house costs $223 a month more in Fairfax County than in Montgomery County, before anyone looks at your rate.

By Ken Byrne, NMLS #187129 · ALCOVA Mortgage LLC, NMLS #40508 · Updated September 2026

Every payment calculator will give you principal and interest on a $600,000 house in about four seconds. What it will not tell you is that the same house carries a $223 a month spread in property tax across the DMV, that at this exact price an FHA loan stops working in most of Virginia, or that Virginia charges you recordation tax twice on the way in. This guide gives you the payment at every down payment level, the county tax calculated rather than estimated, the loan type comparison with real fees in it, and the income you need to carry it. If you want it run on a specific address, JB Financing, the Ken Byrne Team at ALCOVA Mortgage will do it the same day.

Monthly payment on a $600,000 house by down payment

Principal and interest only, 30 year fixed, calculated at 6.95 percent. This is the part of the payment that never changes for the life of the loan.

Calculated on a 30 year fixed at 6.95 percent, the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey average for the week ending September 17, 2026. Principal and interest only. Figures rounded to the nearest dollar. This is an illustration, not a rate quote.

The county decides more of your payment than you think

Property tax is the second largest line in the payment and it is the only one that changes purely because of where the house sits. On a $600,000 assessment, here is what each DMV jurisdiction collects, calculated from the published rate.

Rates as published by each jurisdiction. Fairfax is the base county rate before district levies, which some areas add. Arlington includes the flat $268 stormwater utility fee. The District figure applies the $87,050 homestead deduction to the assessed value before the rate. Maryland figures are the county rate only and exclude any municipal rate.

The Virginia counties are the widest spread of the group. Fairfax and Loudoun sit next to each other and are $157 a month apart on the same assessment. If you are already deciding between two counties on commute or schools, this belongs in the comparison. We keep the full jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction breakdown in our guide to Northern Virginia property tax rates by county.

Half a point of rate moves less than the county line does

This is the cleanest way to see why the tax table above matters. Here is the same $600,000 house at five different rates, against the $223 a month that separates the cheapest and most expensive jurisdictions in the DMV.

All figures at a 20 percent down payment on a $600,000 house, 30 year fixed, calculated. The right-hand column solves backwards for the loan that produces the same $3,177 payment at each rate, then grosses it up to a purchase price at 80 percent loan to value.

Payment by loan type on a $600,000 house

The four programs do not just differ on down payment. Each one adds its own fee, and two of them add it to the loan rather than to your closing costs, which means you pay interest on it for 30 years.

FHA figures: base loan $579,000 plus the 1.75 percent up-front premium of $10,133 financed (Mortgagee Letter 2012-4), with the annual premium at 0.55 percent of the base loan, about $265 a month (Mortgagee Letter 2023-05). VA funding fee rates from the Department of Veterans Affairs, effective for loans closed on or after April 7, 2023, and waived for veterans receiving or entitled to compensation for a service-connected disability. All principal and interest at 6.95 percent.

The VA rows are worth reading twice. A repeat VA borrower putting nothing down finances a $19,800 funding fee, which is $46 a month of the payment forever and roughly $16,500 of interest over 30 years on the fee alone. Putting 5 percent down drops that fee to 1.5 percent. The arithmetic is in our breakdown of the VA funding fee.

At 3.5 percent down the FHA base loan on a $600,000 house is $579,000, which is above the FHA limit everywhere in Virginia outside the metro areas.

The FHA problem at exactly this price

This is the part that catches people, and $600,000 is almost exactly where it starts. At 3.5 percent down the FHA base loan on a $600,000 house is $579,000. Now compare that to the 2026 FHA limit where you are buying.

HUD 2026 areas-at-ceiling and areas-above-floor lists, and Mortgagee Letter 2025-23 for the national floor of $541,287. Limits apply to case numbers assigned on or after January 1, 2026.

This is also the price band where the difference between the two Virginias shows up most sharply, because $600,000 sits above the floor limit and far below the ceiling. The full four-tier picture is in our guide to FHA loans in Virginia.

Cash to close on a $600,000 house, and the Virginia tax nobody budgets

The down payment is not the cash you need. Closing costs are a separate number, and in Virginia one of them is charged twice on the same purchase.

Virginia Code 58.1-801 charges 25 cents per $100 on the deed and 58.1-803 charges the same on the deed of trust, with 58.1-814 adding a local share of one third of the state amount. That works out to about $3.33 per $1,000, applied to the price and again to the loan. The grantor tax under 58.1-802 is a seller charge by default.

The thing national calculators miss is the second charge. Virginia records the deed and the deed of trust, and taxes both. An estimate that only counts the deed understates your recordation bill by roughly half. Notice too that a smaller down payment slightly increases this line, because the loan is larger. Our full breakdown of what Virginia buyers pay at closing sets out the rest of the sheet.

What income do you need for a $600,000 house?

There is no single answer, because the number falls out of your debt-to-income ratio and the ceiling on that depends on the loan and on whether an automated system approved you. Here is the arithmetic with 20 percent down and the Fairfax County tax, at the ratios lenders actually work to.

Household income required per year, calculated from $3,177 principal and interest plus $560 of Fairfax County property tax, divided by the ratio. Homeowners insurance, mortgage insurance and HOA dues are not included and would raise every figure. Fannie Mae Selling Guide B3-6-02 sets the 50 percent Desktop Underwriter ceiling and the 36 to 45 percent manual range.

The spread is the point. The same house needs $124,578 or $89,696 of income depending entirely on which ratio your file is underwritten to, and that is before anyone touches the rate. If you are trying to work out whether you qualify, the ratio is the lever, not the price. We go through every program ceiling in our guide to the maximum debt-to-income ratio by loan type.

What these numbers deliberately leave out

Being straight about this matters more than a bigger headline figure, because the missing lines are real money and no honest source can put a national number on them.

One more piece of context on the price point itself. At $600,000 you are comfortably inside the 2026 conforming loan limit of $832,750, so this is ordinary conventional territory rather than jumbo, and you have the full range of programs available. If you are looking higher, the arithmetic changes shape again around the conforming line, and our payment breakdown on a $700,000 house picks it up from there.

Frequently asked questions

How much is a mortgage on a 600k house?

At the current 30 year fixed average of 6.95 percent, principal and interest on a $600,000 house is about $3,177 a month with 20 percent down and $3,773 with 5 percent down. County property tax adds roughly $337 to $560 a month across the DMV, and homeowners insurance, mortgage insurance and any HOA dues sit on top of that.

What is the monthly payment on a 600k mortgage?

A $600,000 loan at 6.95 percent on a 30 year fixed is about $3,972 a month in principal and interest. Note the difference from the question above: a $600,000 loan is not the same as a $600,000 house, because the house figure is reduced by your down payment.

How much do you need to make to afford a $600,000 house?

Between roughly $90,000 and $125,000 a year with 20 percent down and no other debt, depending on the debt-to-income ratio your loan is underwritten to. At the 50 percent Desktop Underwriter ceiling it is about $89,700. At a conservative 36 percent it is about $124,600. Other monthly debts raise both figures.

How much is the down payment on a $600,000 house?

$18,000 at 3 percent, $21,000 at the FHA minimum of 3.5 percent, $30,000 at 5 percent, $60,000 at 10 percent and $120,000 at 20 percent. Every one of those is calculated on the lesser of the purchase price or the appraised value, so paying over appraisal adds the gap in cash on top.

Can you buy a $600,000 house with an FHA loan?

In Northern Virginia, Maryland and DC, yes. In most of the rest of Virginia, not at the minimum down payment. The 3.5 percent base loan is $579,000 and the FHA limit outside the metro areas is $541,287, so you would need about 9.8 percent down to fit under it, at which point conventional is usually the better loan anyway.

How much are closing costs on a $600,000 house in Virginia?

Buyer recordation tax alone is about $3,600 to $3,940 depending on your loan size, because Virginia charges it on the deed and again on the deed of trust. Lender charges, title, the appraisal, prepaid taxes and insurance and the escrow setup are on top of that.

Is 20 percent down worth it on a $600,000 house?

It saves $676 a month in principal and interest against 3 percent down, and it removes mortgage insurance entirely on a conventional loan. Whether that is worth $102,000 of cash depends on what else the money would do and on whether you would be left with reserves after closing. Lenders look at what remains, not only at what you bring.

Which DMV county has the lowest property tax on a $600,000 house?

Of the jurisdictions in the table above, Montgomery County, Maryland is the lowest at about $337 a month on a $600,000 assessment, and Fairfax County, Virginia is the highest at about $560. The $223 gap is worth roughly $33,700 of borrowing power at the current rate.

Does a bigger down payment lower my property tax?

No. Property tax is charged on the assessed value of the house, not on your loan. The down payment changes your principal, interest and mortgage insurance. It does not change the tax line at all, which is why the county you buy in matters regardless of how you finance.

What rate were these figures calculated at?

6.95 percent, the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey 30 year fixed average for the week ending September 17, 2026. That is a national weekly average and not a quote. Your rate depends on your credit, loan to value, loan type, points and the day you lock.