Consider a 15- or 20-year fixed-rate mortgage instead of a 30-year, if you can afford the monthly payments - they may not be as high as you think.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Opt for a fixed-rate rather than an adjustable-rate mortgage.
Especially if you're over 40, shortening the term of your loan to pay it off sooner could make you mortgage-free in retirement.
Pay off your mortgage before retirement, and that's one less bill you'll have to worry about when you're on a fixed income.
Ignore the annual percentage rate when shopping for a mortgage.
If you're going to live in the house make it your goal to just pay off your mortgage.
There is no better way to quickly buoy hard-pressed homeowners than helping them take advantage of the currently record low fixed mortgage rates and significantly reduce their monthly mortgage payments.
Well, we're just now seeing the reductions in mortgage rates. The mortgage rates are based on the ten-year rate and the Fed controls the overnight or the shorter rates.
As the United States has become an older nation, reverse mortgages have grown into a $20-billion-a-year industry, with elderly homeowners taking out more than 132,000 such loans in 2007, an increase of more than 270 percent from two years earlier.
I had a couple come in with a negative amortization mortgage on a house that costs way too much relative to their income. They're consuming real estate, not investing in it.
Preserving the 30-year prepayable fixed-rate mortgage - it's like the bedrock of the housing system - is critical.