MORTGAGE CALCULATOR
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Mortgage Help
Down Payment:
The typical rule of thumb is to pay 20 percent of the home's price as your down payment, although some mortgage loans require as little as 3.5 percent down. Your down payment reduces the total amount of your mortgage loan, so the more money you put down, the lower your payments will be - or the more expensive a house you can buy.
Loan Term:
Your loan program can affect your interest rate and monthly payments. Choose from 30-year fixed, 15-year fixed, and more in the calculator.
Loan Type:
There are several types of mortgage loans, but the most commonly used are fixed-rate and adjustable-rate loans. Fixed-rate loans have the same interest rate for the entire duration of the loan. That means your monthly payment will be the same, even for long-term loans, such as 30-year fixed-rate mortgages. Two benefits to this loan type are stability, and being able to calculate your total interest up front. Adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) have interest rates that can change over time. Typically they start out at a lower interest rate than a fixed-rate loan, and hold that rate for a set number of years, before changing interest rates from year to year. For example, if you have a 5/1 ARM, you will have the same interest rate for the first 5 years, and then your interest rate will change from year to year. The main benefit of an adjustable-rate loan is starting off with a lower interest rate.
Interest Rate:
This field is pre-filled with the current average mortgage rate. Your actual rate will vary based on factors like credit score and down payment.
Property Tax Rate:
The mortgage payment calculator includes estimated property taxes based on the home's value. You can edit this in the advanced options.
Home Insurance:
Home insurance or homeowners insurance is typically required by lenders, depending on the loan program. You can edit this number in the mortgage calculator advanced options.
HOA Fees:
A homeowners association fee (HOA fee) is an amount of money that must be paid monthly by owners of certain types of residential properties, and HOAs collect these fees to assist with maintaining and improving properties in the association.
AFFORDABILITY CALCULATOR
Quite affordable.
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Words to Know
Home Mortgage:
A loan offered by a bank, mortgage company or other financial institution for the purchase of a primary or investment residence. In a home mortgage, the owner of the property (the borrower) transfers the title to the lender on the condition that the title will be transferred back to the owner once the loan has been fully paid and all other terms of the mortgage have been met.
Borrower:
The person borrowing the mortgage money, who either has or is creating an ownership interest in the property.
Lender:
Any organization lending the mortgage money, but usually a bank or other financial institution (Lenders may also be investors who own an interest in the mortgage through a mortgage-backed security. In such a situation, the initial lender is known as the mortgage originator, which then packages and sells the loan to investors. The payments from the borrower are thereafter collected by a loan servicer.).
Principal:
The original dollar amount of the loan, which may or may not include certain other costs; as any principal is repaid, the principal amount will decrease.
Interest:
A financial charge for use of the lender's money.
Mortgage Loan Types
The two basic types of amortized loans are the fixed rate mortgage (FRM) and adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) (also known as a floating rate or variable rate mortgage).
In an adjustable rate mortgage, the interest rate is generally fixed for a period of time, after which it will periodically (for example, annually or monthly) adjust up or down in relation to a market index. Adjustable rates transfer part of the interest rate risk from the lender to the borrower, and thus are widely used where fixed rate funding is difficult to obtain or prohibitively expensive. Since the risk is transferred to the borrower, the initial interest rate may be, for example, 0.5% to 2% lower than the average 30-year fixed rate; the size of the price differential will be related to debt market conditions, including the yield curve.