Trying to find a mortage calculator

[TallBill]

I'm trying to prove to my wife that buying a 200k house on a 30 year loan will lose us mucho dollars if we only own it for 3 years.

 

[olds]

amortization+calculator

 

[MazerRackham]

If you have Excel, go to File --> New. Click on General Templates and then on Spreadsheet Solutions. There should be a Loan Amortization template. Open that and put in your mortgage info. BOOM. It will show you exactly how much you'd be paying in interest vs. principle for each and every month of the loan.

 

[TallBill]

Sweet, the excel template worked great. Thanks!

 

[NoShangriLa]

Amortization Calculator

 

[TallBill]

Ok, so if the interest alone paid per month is higher then average rent in our area, thats the obvious choice to rent. Hopefully she'll understand the table.

 

[PrelateBishop]

Bankrate.com mortgage calculator.

 

[RossMAN]

Play around with the numbers a little.

See how much of an impact biweekly payments or an extra $100/mo payment makes.

 

[kranky]

Originally posted by: TallBill
Ok, so if the interest alone paid per month is higher then average rent in our area, thats the obvious choice to rent. Hopefully she'll understand the table.

For a fair comparison, you ought to factor in the tax benefits from the mortgage interest. That effectively reduces the actual cost of your mortgage.

 

[lupi]

Besides the tax reduction from a home loan, there are other factors than just looking at an amotization table. My house appraisal went up about 50% over 3 years and 140% over 6.

 

[kranky]

Originally posted by: lupi
Besides the tax reduction from a home loan, there are other factors than just looking at an amotization table. My house appraisal went up about 50% over 3 years and 140% over 6.

But depending on the area, that leverage could just as well work against someone. Lots of homeowners upside-down in many markets these days.

 

[LS20]

Originally posted by: lupi
My house appraisal went up about 50% over 3 years and 140% over 6.

more property taxes ouch

 

[vi edit]

The money lost on a home in three years isn't from interest. It's typically from "other" costs. Buying/saving power lost through downpayments. Closing costs. Furnishing the home. Small little renovations that add up.

And specifically - realtor fees when you go to sell. That's about $14,000 for a $200,000 house. Gone.

 

[MrDudeMan]

Originally posted by: vi_edit
The money lost on a home in three years isn't from interest. It's typically from "other" costs. Buying/saving power lost through downpayments. Closing costs. Furnishing the home. Small little renovations that add up.

And specifically - realtor fees when you go to sell. That's about $14,000 for a $200,000 house. Gone.

which is exactly why we did not use a realtor, rolled most of the closing costs into the loan, paid only 3% for a downpayment, and we dont plan on buying any furniture for a few years until we recover from buying the house.

 

[ClockerXP]

Originally posted by: TallBill
Sweet, the excel template worked great. Thanks!

The template that shows you how much money you save by paying down extra principal every month is really great.

An extra $160 per month on my 20 year $130K mortgage will save me $26,000 in interest and allow me to pay off the loan in 15 years rather than 20.

 

[AmpedSilence]

www.interest.com... has graphs also!

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: vi_edit
The money lost on a home in three years isn't from interest. It's typically from "other" costs. Buying/saving power lost through downpayments. Closing costs. Furnishing the home. Small little renovations that add up.

And specifically - realtor fees when you go to sell. That's about $14,000 for a $200,000 house. Gone.

Exactly. The realtor fees are massive, probably the biggest deterrant to having a house for such a short amount of time. The realtor fees + getting the house ready to sell will likely be almost as much as renting a reasonble apartment for the 3 years. Closing costs aren't bad, but they are probably the second biggest money loser of a short term deal. Think another several thousand dollars. Furnishing can be delayed if you have the willpower, as can some renovations.

For most people the cutoff between a house being better and renting being better is ~3-5 years. However, if you can get away with renting a smaller apartment instead of a house, that length of time skyrockets.

 

[thomsbrain]

if you google "mortgage calculator," one of the first two results is exactly what you are looking for, on a bankrate.com site or something like that. that's a lot less work that posting on ATOT about it.