Mortgage Payment Estimates for Mississippi by Home Price

Why the Mississippi payment looks the way it does

Insurance, not tax, is what sets Mississippi apart: at $327/mo it runs more than double the $103/mo property tax line on a $200,000 home — the price point closest to the statewide median. Annual premiums here average $3,920 and runs above the national average by 54% ($2,543 nationally) — see the risk-by-risk breakdown below for why. Insurance is the standout figure here: Mississippi runs above the national average by 54% at $3,920/yr.

Mississippi's median home price rose a modest 2.6% over the past year, per Zillow — roughly in line with typical wage growth. Prices vary widely by metro: Jackson at $148,000, Gulfport at $212,000, Hattiesburg at $192,000, Tupelo at $198,000, all per Zillow ZHVI 2026.

The math, step by step

Using the price point closest to Mississippi’s own median — $200,000 — here is how every line item adds up to the monthly payment:

Start with financing. At Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey's 2026-06 rate of 6.4% on a standard 30-year fixed loan, a $160,000 loan (20% down on a $200,000 home) amortizes to a principal-and-interest payment of $1,001/mo. Put down only 10% instead and the loan grows to $180,000, which raises principal and interest to $1,126/mo — $125 more every month for a loan that's $20,000 larger, before tax, insurance, or PMI enter the picture.

Property tax adds $103/mo, derived by applying Mississippi's 0.6% effective rate (Tax Foundation, statewide average across all taxing jurisdictions) to the home's assessed value and dividing by twelve. That statewide figure hides real county variation: Hinds County (Jackson) taxes at 1.0% against 0.3% in Issaquena County — a 3.3x spread between the two, so the true monthly tax line on any specific property in Mississippi depends heavily on which county it sits in. How that assessed value itself gets set also varies: Annual assessment by county tax assessors. Residential property assessed at 10% of true value. And the $103/mo figure above is the pre-exemption number: an owner-occupant can bring it down further — Homestead Exemption: up to $75,000 of assessed value (at 10% assessment ratio = $750,000 market value) is exempt for owner-occupied primary residences. In practice, most Mississippi homes receive a full exemption from the local school district levies. Seniors 65+ receive an additional exemption.

Hurricanes and tropical storms and 3 other named risks are the kind Mississippi insurers price into every policy — the reason the $3,920/yr average premium (÷12 = $327/mo) sits where it does; this is the same per-price-point figure the table above sums, so the two always agree by construction. Unlike principal and interest, that line is flat: it doesn't move with the down payment. Note: this is an earlier snapshot of the same Insurance.com series RealCostIQ now publishes at $2,602/yr in the Insurance section below — the PITI math above hasn't been rebuilt against the newer figure yet, so treat the monthly line here as the modeling basis and the figure below as the current published rate.

Those three lines total $1,431/mo at 20% down — matching the table above, since 20% down clears the PMI threshold here. 20% down ($40,000) skips PMI. 10% down ($20,000) adds it at 0.46% of the loan a year (mortgage-insurer rate card, 720–739 credit score), or $69/mo — $1,625 total instead of $1,431. You can ask the lender to cancel it around month 94, when the balance reaches $160,000 (80% of the original price) — roughly $6,486 paid in before then. If you don't ask, the Homeowners Protection Act requires it to end automatically when the balance is scheduled to reach 78%.

At this $200,000 price point specifically: qualifying at 20% down takes $61,320/yr under the 28% rule ($47,694/yr under the looser 36% rule); at 10% down it's $69,639/yr — $8,319 more, a meaningful jump — dropping to 10% down doesn't just mean a smaller check at closing, it raises the bar to qualify. A household earning Mississippi's own median income of $51,432 falls short of the 20%-down bar at this specific price point, by $9,888 — this price point requires an above-median income here. At 10% down, where the higher loan amount raises the bar further, that same median household falls short by $18,207.

What financing costs across the price range

Total interest over the full 30-year term at 20% down runs from $200,291 on a $200,000 Mississippi home to $751,093 on a $750,000 one — both figures assume the loan is held to term with no extra principal payments. At the $200,000 price point used throughout this page, that works out to $200,291 in interest on a $160,000 loan. At 10% down instead, PMI adds $6,486 in total premiums on the $200,000 home before it cancels, and $24,323 on the $750,000 home — cost that buys nothing but the right to put down less cash up front, and that a 20%-down buyer avoids at either price.

At 20% down and the 28% front-end DTI rule, a $200,000 home in Mississippi needs $61,320/yr to qualify, while a $750,000 home needs $191,452/yr. That's the binding number for a buyer with no other debt. Once other debt is added to the picture, the 36% back-end ratio is the one that governs, and it takes less income to clear — $47,694/yr and $148,907/yr for the same two homes — but only because it's now competing with a car payment or student loan for that same 36%, not because the home got cheaper to finance. That statewide range plays out locally too: Jackson's median of $148,000 and Gulfport's median of $212,000 sit on opposite ends of the same qualifying-income curve.

Can a median-income household actually afford this?

A household earning Mississippi's median income of $51,432 is a modest $4,025 short (8%) of the $55,457/yr a lender would want to see on the median-priced home at 20% down at 7.03% (Freddie Mac PMMS, week of September 24, 2026) — a raise, a second income, or a slightly smaller home closes most of that gap. Lenders check two DTI thresholds, not one: the 28% front-end ratio covers housing costs alone ($61,320/yr at this page's $200,000 price point and its 6.4% rate), while the looser 36% back-end ratio also counts other debt and takes less income to clear on housing alone — $47,694/yr here. The catch: that 36% is shared with a car payment or student loan, so a buyer carrying other debt can end up needing MORE total income than the 28% figure suggests, not less. The two income figures use different rates — 6.4% for this page's price points, 7.03% for the median-home figure — so they are not directly comparable. The price a median-income household can actually afford under the 28% rule at 7.03% (Freddie Mac PMMS, week of September 24, 2026) is $159,416 — $15,984 below the statewide median of $175,400. That gap is not uniform statewide: Madison County, Rankin County, DeSoto County price out median earners fastest, while Holmes County, Quitman County, Humphreys County stay within reach on a median income.

Cash to close

Mississippi's closing costs sit at the high end of typical for the country — 2.3% of the purchase price. On this $200,000 home that's $4,600. Title insurance ($900) is a meaningful chunk of that figure, though not the majority of it. Layered on top of the down payment, total cash to close runs $44,600 at 20% down or $24,600 at 10% down — the closing-cost portion is identical either way; only the down payment changes. Unlike property tax — which runs 1.0% in Hinds County (Jackson) versus 0.3% in Issaquena County — closing costs don't swing nearly as much by county; the figure above is a reasonable statewide planning number wherever in Mississippi the home sits. There's no state, county, or municipal transfer tax to add on top of that — one reason the total above lands on the lower side. Mississippi does not require an attorney at closing, though buyers may hire one at their own cost. Once the sale closes, Mississippi homeowners can file for the homestead exemption described in the property-tax section above — it isn't automatic, and it only reduces the tax line going forward, not any cost at the closing table itself.

Insurance and flood risk

Mississippi homeowners pay an average of $2,602/yr for homeowners insurance at $300,000 dwelling coverage ($217/mo), per Insurance.com — Average homeowners insurance rates by state (Rate Analysis 2026) — against a national average of $2,765/yr. The named factors — each explained below — are hurricanes and tropical storms, tornadoes, flooding, severe thunderstorms year-round. That ranks 24th most expensive of the 51 states and D.C. — 94% of the national average. The private insurance market has not seen the large-scale carrier exits reported in some higher-risk states. Flood risk is high in parts of the state, notably Gulf Coast (Harrison, Hancock, Jackson counties — surge zone), Mississippi River Delta communities (Warren, Issaquena counties), Yazoo River basin (Delta region). Hurricane Katrina (2005) devastated the Mississippi Gulf Coast with a 27-foot storm surge — the highest ever recorded in the U.S. The 2011 Mississippi River floods threatened Vicksburg and Delta communities for weeks. The 2020 Jackson flooding exposed critical infrastructure failures in the state capital. The average NFIP premium runs $928/yr, and lenders require coverage in FEMA Zones Zone A, Zone AE, Zone V, Zone VE. Premiums vary sharply by county: Alcorn County (~$1,800/yr), Tishomingo County (~$1,900/yr), Prentiss County (~$2,000/yr) run cheapest, while Harrison County (~$5,500/yr), Hancock County (~$5,800/yr), Jackson County (~$5,200/yr) run highest — the statewide average above blends both ends. Private flood insurance is available in Mississippi alongside the NFIP, giving buyers outside a mandatory-purchase zone a second option for coverage. 73,000 NFIP policies are currently in force statewide.

Hurricanes and tropical storms — Gulf Coast — Katrina 2005 caused catastrophic damage; coast remains high-risk are a catastrophic, low-frequency event that insurers reinsure against separately — it drives the premium far more than it drives claim frequency in an ordinary year. Tornadoes — Dixie Alley; significant frequency in northern Mississippi are a narrow, high-severity damage path rather than a broad one — insurers price it as a probability-weighted catastrophe even though any single property's odds of a direct hit are low. Flooding — Mississippi and Pearl river systems is typically excluded from a standard homeowners policy outright, which is why NFIP or private flood coverage is a separate line item, not folded into the premium above. Severe thunderstorms year-round is one of the named factors insurers cite when setting the premium above, alongside the others listed.

Rent vs. buy in Mississippi

The median asking rent in Mississippi is $950/mo, putting the statewide price-to-rent ratio at 15.4 — strongly favors buying — mississippi is among the most affordable buy markets in the us; insurance costs are the key caveat. On the median-priced home, RealCostIQ's breakeven math puts the point where buying overtakes renting at 2.5 years of ownership, before accounting for any home-price appreciation. Gulfport and Jackson bracket the statewide ratio closely (13.0–16.4), so the number above is a fair read on most of Mississippi's tracked metros.

Loan limits

The 2026 conforming loan limit for a single-unit home in Mississippi is $832,750 statewide — Mississippi has no FHFA-designated high-cost county, so that ceiling applies everywhere in the state. A loan above it is a jumbo loan, which typically carries stricter underwriting and a different rate. A buyer financing the statewide median home at 20% down borrows only about $140,320 — comfortably under the limit, with $692,430 of headroom before jumbo underwriting would apply.

Down payment assistance

Mississippi's primary down payment assistance program is Smart7, administered by Mississippi Home Corporation (MHC). It offers up to $7,000 as a deferred-payment loan on homes up to $413,610 — comfortably above Mississippi's own median home price, so the cap isn't the binding constraint for a typical buyer here. 2 additional programs exist statewide: Easy8 (up to $8,000, a deferred-payment loan) and Trusty10 (up to $10,000, a repayable second loan). Stacking with additional local programs is generally not permitted, so a buyer should treat these as alternatives rather than additive.

First-time buyer mortgage programs

Beyond down payment assistance, Mississippi first-time buyers can also use MHC Smart6 Loan Program, run by Mississippi Home Corporation (MHC): 30-year fixed-rate FHA, VA, USDA, or conventional mortgage. It covers loans up to $832,750 with as little as 3% down, for household incomes up to $110,000 depending on household size and county. Eligibility requirement: must not have owned a primary residence in the past 3 years; minimum 640 credit score. Available through MHC-approved lenders statewide; homebuyer education required. A second program, MHC Down Payment Assistance (Mississippi Home Corporation (MHC)), covers second mortgage — 0% interest, deferred, up to $6,000 in assistance. Up to $6,000 for down payment and closing costs.

Beyond PITI: what else the payment doesn’t cover

Isolate just the mortgage — principal and interest, nothing else — and the payment on Mississippi's median-priced home is $877/mo. The number a buyer should actually budget to is $1,704/mo, nearly double the mortgage payment alone (94% higher). The single biggest add-on in Mississippi is homeowners insurance, at $327/mo — ahead of every other non-mortgage line item in the true-cost breakdown. Maintenance reserves is the runner-up at $219/mo — the two together are the main reason the true-cost figure runs so far above the mortgage-alone number.

PITI is not the full cost of owning. RealCostIQ's true-monthly model adds $219/mo — $2,631/yr — in maintenance reserves (1.5% of home value annually — extreme heat and humidity year-round drives mold, wood rot, and HVAC failure; hurricane zone coastal properties require storm shutters, elevated construction, and regular inspection), and $140/mo in electricity plus $50/mo in gas ($190/mo total, per the U.S. Energy Information Administration). Combined, that pushes the true monthly cost of the median home to $1,704 — true monthly cost is 94% higher than mortgage alone — insurance nearly equals the mortgage payment. That reserve isn't arbitrary: a typical HVAC system here runs 10-13 years (among the most demanding HVAC climates; high humidity and extreme summer heat), and a typical roof runs 18-22 years (wind and hail from hurricanes and severe storms; coastal homes require impact-rated materials), per Fannie Mae 1-2% guideline; Bankrate Hidden Costs Study 2025 — both figures already price in Mississippi's own climate rather than a national average. The 1.5% reserve rate is sized to replace both on that state-specific schedule, without a special assessment or a credit-card repair.

See the full Mississippi homebuyer resource page for property tax by county, first-time buyer programs, and utility costs, or compare payments across all eight price points.