Mar 28 2009
Using A 15 Year Fixed Mortgage
Many people who are looking to buy a home consider whether 30 year or 15 year mortgage rates is best for their monthly payments. Many of us are buying homes later in life these days so it is not unreasonable to have the house paid off early. Of course, there are many things to consider before agreeing to anything. A homeowner should pursue, wherever possible, a mortgage with a guaranteed interest rate.
It is always wise to avoid agreements that do not appear to have any negative aspects because they invariably have but are hidden. For loans that have 15 year fixed mortgage rates, the same amount of interest is maintained throughout the life of the loan. This is always a good thing for those people that do not like surprises. My wife and I looked into the loans available with 15 year fixed mortgage rates when we were searching for a home for sale.
It was always our intention to clear our mortgage debt as early as we could but we did not want to over extend ourselves at the same time. It became obvious that we had to look at fixed rate mortgages over a longer period and not just 15 year plans. No-one likes the idea of having a mortgage when they are close to retirement, and we were no different, so it was still our hope that a 15 year fixed mortgage rate plan would still be an option. There was a lot of pressure to have the house paid off as soon as possible.
Eventually we decided on a 30 year loan after looking at all the other possibilities. Reaching the decision we did was the only one that made sense. It was easier reaching this conclusion when I learnt my wife was expecting a baby. Her regular monthly income would become unreliable because she wanted to be at home raising our child. The downside to the 15 year fixed mortgage rate was the higher monthly repayment. We just decided we would probably get into trouble if we took this route. The monthly payments on a 30 year loan were quite a bit lower.
If we have spare cash throughout the year then we can use it to reduce the capital sum. Those few extra payments also help reduce the number of years you have to pay the loan over. This may be difficult but well worth the effort in the a few years down the line. 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. In retrospect, everything worked out ok for us by going down this road.