January 22, 2019
Why should a first-time home buyer use an online mortgage calculator in the planning stages of a new home loan?
There are several reasons, but one of the most important is also one of the things a new house hunter may need to learn as early as possible; the monthly mortgage payment you make as a new home owner is not just about the principal and interest payment on the loan.
Three Important Things To Know About Your Monthly Mortgage Payment
Buying a home with a mortgage loan-ANY mortgage loan-will include a variety of things that make up the total amount of your mortgage payment due each month. An FHA condo loan, an FHA rehabilitation loan, or even an FHA One-Time Close construction loan will have their monthly payments calculated with three important factors in mind:
- Interest rate
- Property taxes
- Homeowners’ insurance
When these three factors are considered, the purchase price of the home minus the down payment amount will be the base amount you’re making the calculations with.
The Monthly Payment Factors That Are Easy To Forget About-At First
And that’s the area many first time home buyers can easily overlook in the earliest planning stages of the loan-the fact that all home loan transactions will include factors such as the amount of property taxes required, how much insurance will be, etc. Simply dividing the sale price of the home in equal amounts over a 15-year or 30-year mortgage loan period won’t give you the right results.
That is why using online tools such as mortgage calculators or mortgage payment calculators can be so helpful-you’ll see clearly how these expenses factor into your mortgage and how much you can approximate will be due every month.
An FHA mortgage requires a low down payment for borrowers with have FICO scores that meet both FHA standards and lender FICO score minimums. But some borrowers may look at the numbers they get from a mortgage payment calculator and choose to make a larger down payment in the interest of saving money over the long term.
That’s a choice each first-time home buyer must make for themselves, but having the numbers and making a fully informed choice is a very important thing in the home buying process.
Learn more about purchasing a home with an FHA mortgage as a first-time home buyer.
Joe Wallace has been specializing in military and personal finance topics since 1995. His work has appeared on Air Force Television News, The Pentagon Channel, ABC and a variety of print and online publications. He is a 13-year Air Force veteran and a member of the Air Force Public Affairs Alumni Association. He was Managing editor for www.valoans.com for (8) years and is currently the Associate Editor for FHANewsblog.com.
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