Mortgage Payment Calculator Helps Determine If House Is Affordable

One quick method to figure out if you can afford that new house being built down the street is to use a mortgage payment calculator, similar to the ones used by real estate agents and banks. By doing a little bit of math and a lot of budgeting, a potential home buyer should be able to determine home much of a house payment will fit inside their budget. With that number in hand, by knowing just a few figures, a mortgage payment calculator can determine if the new house is within reach.

There is an assortment of mortgage payment calculators available to use free online that quickly offer the potential payment amount by entering the amount of the loan, the number of years, or months of the loan's life and the interest rate. Bear in mind it works with fixed rate mortgages better, but will give the initial payment amount for an adjustable rate mortgage. The mortgage payment calculator will have to be used for every change in the prime rate to keep it accurate.

The mortgage payment calculator can also be useful if the homeowner is considering applying for a loan to refinance their house. They should be able to quickly determine how much they can save, or how much more it will cost them to take out a refinanced home loan over the life of the loan.

Investors Can Determine If Purchase Is Viable

When some folks look at buying a house for an investment they can use a mortgage payment calculator to determine how much they will have to charge in rent to pay the mortgage, maintenance and all other associated costs such as taxes and insurance. With the monthly payment in mind they can determine if they will be able to rent the house out for that amount to make it a viable investment.

Some mortgage payment calculators can also be used to find an interest rate with which a home will be affordable. A good calculator should allow the user to plug in any of the variables and receive an answer to the ones not entered. For example, by entering the number of months of the loan, the total amount and the monthly payment, should return an interest rate that makes that amount possible.

A mortgage payment calculator can also tell the homeowner how much faster the loan can be paid off if they make additional payments. By increasing their monthly payments by just $20 per month over a period of 20 years, they may shave a couple of years off the mortgage's life.