Advantages And Disadvantages of Fixed-Rate Vs Adjustable-Rate Home Mortgages
Friday, October 14th, 2011Advantages And Disadvantages of Fixed-Rate Vs Adjustable-Rate Home Mortgages
A home is where the heart is. If you want to build your own family, you will need a home of your own. However, owning a home is not that easy. If you are very rich with lots of money saved; it is easy for you to own a house because you can pay the total price of the house you want in cash. However, if you havent saved enough money yet, you can still go for a house by financing it through a mortgage loan.
A mortgage loan is a loan given by a bank or any other lending institution so that a person can afford to purchase a house he wants. When a mortgage loan is given to a person, he is allowed to use the banks money to purchase a home of his choice. The bank giving the loan will add interest on the total amount of cash value, called the principal, borrowed by the person. The interest will depend on the current economic indicators.
There are basically two types of home mortgages: fixed-rate mortgage and the adjustable-rate mortgage. You can choose any of these two types to purchase your first home or for a home refinance. Each type has its own pros and cons. So first you understand the differences between these two types of mortgages so that you can choose the best one that will best suit your needs.
The Fixed-Rate Home Mortgage. If you are having a hard time with budgeting your money; the fixed-rate home mortgage is ideal for you. Fixed-rate home mortgages which are offered by lending institutions are charged with a set rate of interest. This interest rate does not change throughout the term of the loan. The advantage of a fixed-rate home mortgage is that the total amount that you have to pay will remain the same. The payments that you will make in a fixed-rate mortgage consist primarily of interest payments during the initial years of the term. However, during the later part of the term, the payments that you make will go towards the reduction of your loan principal.
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Another advantage with fixed-rate mortgage is that the person who was granted the loan is protected from any sudden and potentially significant increase in monthly mortgage payments due to the rise of interest rates. Of course, this advantage is considered to be the main one. Economies of even the most developed countries such as the US are very volatile and can change dramatically at any moment. When such thing happens, inflation may occur which will cause an increase in the interest rates. A fixed-rate mortgage protects a loan borrower from these changes. This means that whatever payments computed through a mortgage calculator will remain same throughout the loans term.
The Adjustable-Rate Home Mortgage: An adjustable-rate home mortgage (ARM) has interest rates that keeps changing over time. At the start, the interest rate offered by ARM is lower than that offered by fixed-rate mortgages. However, this rate is only for a specific part of the total loan term. As the term progresses, the interest will keep on increasing until it surpasses the going rate for fixed-rate mortgages.
The low interest rate of the ARM will only remain constant only for a fixed period. After this period is reached, the interest rates are adjusted at a pre-arranged frequency.
Adjusted-rate mortgages can be hard to understand because of the many factors affecting the adjustment of interest being charged on the loan. The adjustments of the interest rates depend on different adjustment indexes such as the interest rate on certificates of deposit, the treasury bills or the LIBOR rate. However, a person who plans to apply for an adjusted-rate mortgage to purchase a home may negotiate with the lending institution to apply caps and ceilings on the interest charges on the loan. Ceiling refers to the highest amount of interest that can be charged on the loan.
ARMs are ideal for most people because they offer lower initial payments and allow a person to qualify for a larger loan. Also, in an economy with a falling interest rate, the person with an ARM will be able to enjoy lower interest rates as the loan term progresses. However, when interest rates rise due to poor economic indexers, a person may find himself paying a significantly higher monthly payment than what he bargained for.
Article by John Hoots of Chicago, who is a specialist in real estate investments. For more information on Chicago home mortgage, visit his site today.
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