In today's world, taking out a mortgage is necessary for anyone who wants to invest in real estate or simply wants to put a roof over his head. Usually, to find out what a mortgage payment will be on a particular property, a potential buyer needs to contact a realtor or bank to get a quote.
By contacting either one, the buyer risks harassment from a realtor who won't let go of a qualified buyer, or a lender who needs to lend mortgage money to stay in business. Any buyer in his right mind will only go to one of these salespeople when he is ready to go full speed ahead toward a closing.
So, what does a person who is in the early thinking stages of buying a home do? How do you know what the payment will be on a house a seller is asking $250,000 for when the bank is advertising 30-year mortgages at 7%?
By the end of this article you will be making such a calculation in your head. You will be sprouting out the answer to complicated home buying scenarios just as fast as you can find the terms on the mortgage and the price on the house.
$66.53 a Month
First, remember this: $10,000 borrowed for 30 years at 7% will require a monthly payment of $66.53. So, it stands to reason $100,000 for 30 years at 7% requires a monthly payment of $665.30. Also take note you could figure out on a piece of paper with a pencil, $50,000 for 30 years at 7% is $332.65.
Knowing these figures, you automatically know a $250,000 mortgage at 7% for 30 years will require a payment of $665.30 (for $100,000) and another $665.30 (for the next $100,000) and $332.65 (for $50,000). This means the payment will be $1,663.25, or really, really close. A mortgage calculator gives the answer as $1,663.26, but for a wild guess, I'll take it.
A 6% or an 8% Mortgage
Of course, here you ask, "What if I find a mortgage with a lower interest rate?" Well in that case, remember this, $10,000 borrowed for 30 years at 6% costs the borrower $59.96 a month. This means a $1,000,000 mortgage for 30 years at 6% will be 100 times $59.96 or, a monthly payment of $5,996.00. Now, certainly that was easy. All we had to do was add 2 zeros!
Okay, what about if the interest rate is 8%? Here, a 30-year mortgage for $10,000 is $73.38 each month. So a $300,000 mortgage will come at a cost of 30 times that or, $2,201.40 a month.
How About a 71/4% Mortgage?
In reality, most times interest rates will not be exactly 6 or 7, or 8%. Even when this is the case, you still don't need a mortgage calculator. If you read about a 30-year $260,000 mortgage at 71/4%, for instance, and you want to know what the monthly payment will be, here's what you do. Are you ready? Guess!
That's right! Just guess! You know 7% will cost you $66.53 per $10,000 a month and 8% will cost $73.38 per $10,000 a month. You also know 71/4 is somewhere on the lower side between 7 and 8 so take a guess how much 71/4% will cost per $10,000 a month. My guess would be maybe, $68.50?
I'll go with that. So, since it is a $260,000 mortgage we're trying to figure the payment for, we will multiply 26 (260,000 / 10,000) X $68.50. The answer is: $1,781.
When I run $260,000 at 71/4% for 30 years through a mortgage payment calculator the answer comes out $1,773.66. So, our answer wasn't precisely right, but it was pretty close.
In a case like this, even if we came out with an answer that is $20-$30 off, who cares? Before the real mortgage payment is determined, the cost of a homeowner's insurance policy and property taxes will have to be calculated anyway. So, the best anybody can do at this point is guess.
By: Ed Lathrop
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