Zillow Lets Users Filter Results by Mortgage Affordabilty

Leading U.S. real estate portal Zillow has unveiled a new feature aimed at helping buyers find homes that fit their monthly budget. The new filter shows homes within a range of all-in monthly costs, including principal and interest, insurance costs, taxes and HOA fees, clarifying a common source of confusion for buyers.

With mortgage rates rising dramatically last year, monthly costs for homebuyers soared by nearly $700 compared to the previous year and are now $431 higher than in March 2021 according to a Zillow press release. Zillow says that the combination of high rates and record-breaking home appreciation has almost doubled monthly mortgage costs since 2020, making it difficult for buyers to figure out what they can really afford.

The new search tool, crunches all the numbers for home hunters, allowing them to find a home can afford. Shoppers can start by using Zillow's linked affordability calculator, which helps estimate the monthly mortgage cost they can afford based on their income, debts and down payment amount. They can then enter their monthly budget range into the filter to start shopping.

Like most portals, Zillow already has a mortgage repayment calculator but this new feature, which is currently available on the app and coming soon to Zillow.com, is the first time that a real estate portal has allowed users to filter results specifically by mortgage affordability.

Zillow has released a raft of product updates over the last few months as it continues to focus on its "North Star" of satisfying its end users. In January the Seattle-based portal launched AI-powered natural language search and allowed renters to schedule apartment tours directly from the portal. It followed up in March by integrating with interactive map specialist Engrain to show renters the view from individual unites of multifamily buildings.