- How long do you expect to own your home? The average homeowner sells after about 7 years. If possible, you want a fixed interest rate for as long as you will live in your home. This way your mortgage payments won’t increase. Learn More
- How much can you afford? Estimate what you can afford to pay, including mortgage payments, property tax, homeowner association fees, personal mortgage insurance, home maintenance, and homeowner insurance. Learn More
- What will you do if your payments increase? Some types of mortgages have low payments in the first few years. Lenders might qualify you for a larger mortgage based on these low payments. Ask your lender how big a mortgage you could get if you had a 30-year fixed rate mortgage. This is a more conservative estimate of what you can afford. Learn More
| You can get a mortgage from banks, credit unions and mortgage brokers. There are also lots of different mortgage products from which to choose. Think about the following: Shop around When looking for a mortgage, shop around. Don’t just look at the monthly payment. Compare interest rates, loan terms , and other features. BankRate.com is a good place to compare interest rates. This chart should help get you started comparing mortgage loans. Loan counselors and mortgage brokers can walk you through the process and help you with the details. Click here to print the chart ( Adobe® Acrobat® Reader®)
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