Fun with Mortgage Calculators

Dreaming of buying a home now that the prices have dropped? Why not have a little fun with some online mortgage calculators? They help you to dream in a realistic way by giving you the hard facts about the numbers involved in your home mortgage dreams. There are a number of online mortgage calculators that can help you look at a fixed rate or a variable rate mortgage option.

Fixed Rate Mortgage Calculators

These are the simplest forms of mortgages to calculate. They come with a fixed interest payment that is for the life of the loan. You can estimated the interest payment very closely to what the present rates are on mortgage loans. You can add in the down payment that you are choosing to make to get the loan (which will have to be between 10 and 20% to qualify these days). The mortgage calculators will also ask for the term of the loan. Fifteen and 30-year loans are pretty common mortgage products, but you can now get one for 40 years too. The mortgage calculators will crunch the numbers and give you an amortized table of your payments. If you are not asked for an estimate of hazard insurance or property tax escrow payments, then the value you see might be smaller than the value you get at closing. If you want a closer estimate, be sure to find out what you hazard insurance and escrow payments might be for the house you are considering buying.

Adjustable Rate Mortgage Calculators

Years ago these mortgage calculators weren’t very common. Now, even people who are just looking to see how much more their payments will be with an adjustable rate mortgage they bought earlier might like these nice applications. The adjustable rate mortgage calculators add in additional information that can help you see how much a mortgage changes with an adjustment of the interest rate after the initial period is over. Keep in mind that the number of adjustable rate mortgage products are numerous and they all have their little intricacies. You may be able to get a reasonable picture of what happens when your mortgage rate adjusts, but it might not be suitable for the particular mortgage you choose. It might only work for one adjustment, whereas ARMs can adjust yearly at times. Always look at the good faith estimate to understand more about what your actual costs are for an adjustable rate mortgage and take a close look at the amortization table to see how your payments adjust over the years.