When purchasing a new home, most buyers choose to finance a portion of the purchase price via the use of a mortgage. Prior to the wide availability of mortgage calculators, those wishing to understand the financial implications of changes to the five main variables in a mortgage transaction were forced to use compound interest rate tables. These tables generally required a working understanding of compound interest mathematics for proper use. In contrast, mortgage calculators make answers to questions regarding the impact of changes in mortgage variables available to everyone.