Free home equity calculator: how much can you borrow?
Enter your home value and what you still owe to see how much equity you own, your loan-to-value, and roughly how much you could tap with a HELOC or cash-out refinance.
Estimate only, for US homes. Lenders set their own limits and weigh your credit and income. Not a loan offer.
How home equity works — and how much you can borrow against it
Home equity is the part of your home you actually own: your home's current value minus everything you still owe against it. As you pay down your mortgage and your home appreciates, your equity grows — and it's often a household's single biggest source of wealth.
Equity = home value − mortgage balance − other liens. A $450,000 home with a $280,000 balance has $170,000 in equity — about 38% of the home.
Loan-to-value (LTV): the number lenders watch
LTV is your total debt divided by your home's value — the mirror image of equity. A $280,000 balance on a $450,000 home is a 62% LTV (38% equity). Lenders use it to decide how much more you can borrow, usually capping combined LTV at 80–85%.
How much can you borrow?
Take your lender's max LTV (say 85%) of your home value, then subtract what you already owe. On a $450,000 home that's $382,500 − $280,000 ≈ $102,500 you might access — if your credit and income qualify. The main ways to tap it:
- HELOC: a revolving line of credit secured by your equity — flexible, usually variable rate.
- Home equity loan: a fixed-rate lump sum repaid over a set term.
- Cash-out refinance: replace your mortgage with a larger one and take the difference in cash.
Borrowing to renovate? Make sure the project pays back — run it through our Renovation ROI Calculator first, see how extra payments affect your loan with the Mortgage Payoff Calculator, and read the full Home Value guide.