Why You Should Use a Mortgage Calculator
March 10, 2025
A mortgage calculator helps you plan for future financial scenarios, such as buying new or refinancing a current home. A mortgage calculator allows borrowers to compare current mortgage terms with potential refinance options. Users can determine the potential savings and assess whether refinancing is worthwhile by inputting the new interest rate and loan term.
Creating Financial Strategy to Own Your Home
A mortgage calculator can help you determine how much and how often to pay. Making extra principal payments on a mortgage can accelerate the payoff of a mortgage and save thousands of dollars in interest. Knowing how to use your income to maximize your investment is good.
A mortgage calculator can show you the effects of making additional payments each month. Depending on your strategy, it’s an option you may consider along with other financial obligations. How much will you help yourself by planning your repayment efforts?
By inputting the extra payment amount into the calculator, users can see how much sooner they can pay off their mortgage and how much money that may leave them for other purposes.
Understanding Amortization and Equity Building
A mortgage calculator can provide insights into the home loan repayment schedule and equity building. Some calculators are designed to generate a repayment schedule illustrating how each monthly payment is allocated between principal and interest over the life of the loan.
This schedule provides valuable insights into how equity builds over time. And when you track the principal balance over time, you can estimate their equity in the home.
Comparing Different Mortgage Products
Mortgage calculators help you compare different mortgage products, such as fixed-rate mortgages, adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs), and government-backed loans. ARMs offer lower initial interest rates.
But those rates will change over time. A mortgage calculator can help users compare the potential costs of ARMs with fixed-rate mortgages, allowing them to consider the risks of each option.
Government-backed loans, such as FHA, VA, and USDA loans, have specific costs associated with those loans. A mortgage calculator can help users estimate the costs associated with a specific type of government-guaranteed home loan.
FHA Loan Articles
October 30, 2024Just because an FHA loan is designed to be more lenient with FICO scores and require a lower down payment doesn’t mean the house you buy with that loan is less than ideal. Did you know that FHA loans have minimum property standards to ensure the home is safe and livable? Those standards require the home to have an “economic life” for the entire term of the loan so you can freely sell the property later on if you choose to do so.
October 29, 2024Buying a home with an FHA mortgage is a major life decision, and preparation is essential before you start house hunting or consider making an offer on a property.
How to get started? In the early stages, establishing your budget and how much work you need to do on your credit is key. But once you have gotten past the initial phase of that planning you’ll want to consider the house itself and what you want from it.
October 25, 2024Mixed-use properties combine residential and commercial spaces. Some borrowers applying for FHA home loans want to know if purchasing such a property using an FHA single-family home loan is possible. The FHA does allow the use of its loans for mixed-use properties, but certain conditions must be met.
October 24, 2024Buying your first home is a major milestone. If you use an FHA mortgage to buy your home, you’ll have two types of insurance to consider. One type is the FHA-required mortgage insurance premium, which is paid for 11 years or the loan's lifetime, depending on your down payment, loan term, and other variables.
October 22, 2024While the Federal Housing Administration sets rules for FHA loans, lenders retain some flexibility in determining interest rates, fees, and specific loan terms. Depending on circumstances, the FHA loan offered by your local bank might not be as competitive as one offered by a credit union or an online lender specializing in FHA products, or vice versa.
