What You Need to Understand about Fixed-Rate Mortgages When considering their monthly repayments, many people considering buying a home look into 30 year or 15 year fixed mortgage rates. Paying the mortgage off early is important for many people that buy a home later in life. In a situation as important as this time needs to be spent considering all the available options. Home buyers looking into this need to be assured their monthly payments will not increase.
Avoid the mortgage loans offered by some lenders, those that sound unbelievable because they usually are. Interest rates remain the same throughout the life of the loan for 15 year fixed rate mortgages. For those individuals that don't like hidden surprises, this is always a benefit. When my wife and I were looking at homes for sale we decided to check out the various loans available with 15 year fixed mortgage rates.
Having a realistic, sustainable monthly payment on our mortgage was important even though we wanted to pay off our debt as soon as possible. So in consideration of this point we also looked at longer, 30 year fixed rate mortgages as well. Still, having a mortgage close to retirement wasn't what we were looking for, so we decided to try for a loan with a 15 year fixed mortgage. We were worried about the emphasis placed on early completion of the mortgage.
Taking everything into account we finally went for the easier 30 year mortgage plan instead. There are always a number of points to think about when a decision like this has to be made. Finding out my wife was having a baby made making the choice so much easier! My wife decided she wanted to raise our child at home so I couldn't be certain of her monthly financial commitment to our household expenses. The financial commitment per month on the 15 year fixed mortgage rate was just too high. We just decided we would probably get into trouble if we took this route. After looking at the much lower amount we would be paying per month with a 30 year mortgage loan, there wasn't any option but to go with it.
If we have spare cash throughout the year then we can use it to reduce the capital sum. It is possible to take years off your loan if you can make a few extra payments during each year. Although this isn't easy to achieve, in the long term it is well worth it. Our first choice would have been to go for the short term 15 year fixed rate mortgage solution but this did not help with our more immediate situation. Despite all our worries, things turned out well for us and we do not regret the decision.
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