You open your mortgage documents and you see this big amount of money owed under “PITI”. But you have no clue as to what is the right PITI definition. Don’t worry; we got you!
PITI is not someone with an accent trying to say “pitty”. The correct PITI definition is of an acronym to the primary elements of many monthly mortgage payments:
- P for Principal
- I for Interest
- T for Taxes
- I for Insurance
So, Principal, Interest, Taxes, and Insurance - or PITI – are actually the main components of what you will pay back to the lender monthly once you get a mortgage. However, not all mortgages include taxes and insurance in the payments. That doesn’t mean they will charge you a “PI”; they’ll probably just single out principal and interest.
But saying that PITI is just an aggregation to make the understanding of borrower’s expenses is not the most thorough PITI definition. The PITI assembling is as important for the lender itself, so it can determine the affordability of an individual mortgage and approve it or decline it. The lender calculates one’s PITI to determine the borrower’s risk, just like the borrower does to determine if his pockets are big enough to purchase that home.
Check our Real Estate Questions page; maybe someone else had the same doubts you have and we answered it already!
Popular Real Estate Terms
The income earned on an investment, typically stated as a percentage of the market price ...
The term actual notice is used most often in connection with property law, but the concept can also be applied in other law areas. To define actual notice, we can look at the two major ...
Legal proceeding whereby a person's property is attached and used to pay an obligation. The employer may withhold part of the employee's salary to the court until the debt has been paid. ...
Representative house, apartment, or cooperative used as a sales tool to show how the actual unit bought will probably appear in design and construction. An example is a model apartment. ...
The right to possess, exclusively occupy, enjoy, control, and dispose of real estate. Ownership rights to realty are granted by the ownership of a title to real property. ...
A clause inserted in a mortgage agreement requiring a future buyer of the subject property to obtain the consent of the lending institution prior to assuming the mortgage. In this ...
The amount of a periodic payment, whether monthly, quarterly, or annually, including interest and principal, required for a mortgage payment. ...
Individual or entity who pays for the professional services of another person or business. ...
The Loan-to-value ratio (LTV) is a calculation that measures how much you need to pay for a mortgage (loan) concerning how much the asset is worth. The loan-to-value ratio in real ...

Have a question or comment?
We're here to help.