30 or 15 Year Fixed Mortgage
Rates
Considering whether you need 30 or 15 year fixed mortgage
rates is important for people looking to buy a home and
concerned about their monthly payments. Many people wait until
they are older before taking on the responsibility of a
mortgage so an early payment of this large debt is an important
issue to think about. But, before you commit yourself and sign
any documents, there are points you need to think about. One
important point is to ensure that the interest rate does not
change during the life of the loan.
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.
Having a realistic, sustainable monthly payment on our mortgage
was important even though we wanted to pay off our debt as soon
as possible. Considering longer term fixed rate mortgages was
one option if we could not afford a 15 year plan. Still, having
a mortgage close to retirement was not what we were looking
for, so we decided to try for a loan with a 15 year fixed
mortgage. Too much pressure was placed on the early repayment
of the mortgage loan.
We thought about it long and hard and despite the pressure we
decided to go with the 30 year loan plan. Many factors were
taken into account when reaching this decision. Finding out my
wife was having a baby made making the choice so much easier!
The contribution my wife made to the monthly finances would be
unreliable since she intended to raise our child at home.
Unfortunately, a higher monthly payment was the downside for
loans with a 15 year fixed mortgage rate. We could see the
financial problem of getting in too deep even though there were
benefits to a shorter loan period. The 30 year loan repayments
were considerably lower than the 15 year figures.
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 rates 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.
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