Refinance into a shorter term
When you refinance your home, you can pay off your home faster by replacing your 30-year mortgage with one that's a shorter term. With a mortgage refinance, you can shorten your loan term by selecting a 20, 15, or even a 10-year loan.
Even one or two extra mortgage payments a year can help you make a much larger dent in your mortgage debt. This not only means you'll get rid of your mortgage faster; it also means you'll get rid of your mortgage more cheaply. A shorter loan = fewer payments = fewer interest fees.
The 10/15 rule
If you can manage to pay 10% of your mortgage payment every week (in addition to your usual monthly payment) and apply it to the principal of your loan, you can pay off your 30-year mortgage in just 15 years.
The additional amount will reduce the principal on your mortgage, as well as the total amount of interest you will pay, and the number of payments.
Making extra payments of $500/month could save you $60,798 in interest over the life of the loan. You could own your house 13 years sooner than under your current payment. These calculations are tools for learning more about the mortgage process and are for educational/estimation purposes only.
If you pay $100 extra each month towards principal, you can cut your loan term by more than 4.5 years and reduce the interest paid by more than $26,500. If you pay $200 extra a month towards principal, you can cut your loan term by more than 8 years and reduce the interest paid by more than $44,000.
It will cost about 10–20% more to pay off a 30 year mortgage in 15 years than to take a 15 year mortgage and pay it off in that time. Generally, that's how much higher mortgage interest rates are on 30-year versus 15-year mortgages, about 10–20% higher.
Timing Requirements – The “3/7/3 Rule”
The initial Truth in Lending Statement must be delivered to the consumer within 3 business days of the receipt of the loan application by the lender. The TILA statement is presumed to be delivered to the consumer 3 business days after it is mailed.
Conventional wisdom, according to Buch and Rhoda (1999), suggests using the “2-2-2 rule” as a criterion for refinancing: “Refinancing may make sense if the interest rate potentially available to you is 2 percent less than you are now paying, if you plan to stay in your home for more than two years, and if the ...
You decide to increase your monthly payment by $1,000. With that additional principal payment every month, you could pay off your home nearly 16 years faster and save almost $156,000 in interest.
Since your interest is calculated on your remaining loan balance, making additional principal payments every month will significantly reduce your interest payments over the life of the loan. By paying more principal each month, you incrementally lower the principal balance and interest charged on it.
Ideally, you want your extra payments to go towards the principal amount. However, many lenders will apply the extra payments to any interest accrued since your last payment and then apply anything left over to the principal amount. Other times, lenders may apply extra funds to next month's payment.
Some people get a 30-year mortgage, thinking they'll pay it off in 15 years. If you did that, your 30-year mortgage would be cheaper because you'd save yourself 15 years of interest payments. But doing that is really no different than choosing a 15-year mortgage in the first place.
Compared to 30-year mortgages, a 15-year loan often comes with a lower interest rate. Plus, you can get rid of your debt in half the time. While these are certainly benefits, a shorter repayment term means you'll have higher monthly loan payments.
28% / 36% rule
With this rule, housing costs should not make up more than 28% of your gross income, and no more than 36% of your gross income should be required to meet all your monthly debt obligations combined.
The rule is simple. When considering a mortgage, make sure your: maximum household expenses won't exceed 28 percent of your gross monthly income; total household debt doesn't exceed more than 36 percent of your gross monthly income (known as your debt-to-income ratio).
Under the TRID rule, credit unions generally must provide the Loan Estimate to consumers no later than seven business days before consummation.
Cons of 15-year Mortgages
The higher monthly payment may be too much for many people's budget. For example, not including taxes and insurance, in January of 2020, you would pay approximately $1,411 per month for a 15-year, $200,000 loan. A 30-year, $200,000 loan (without insurance and taxes), would be $898 per month.
As a general rule of thumb, making one extra mortgage payment per year at the start of your 30-year mortgage can shorten the term by approximately four to five years. You could potentially pay off the mortgage and own the home outright in 25 to 26 years instead of 30.
Making extra payments early in the loan saves you much more money over the life of the loan as the extinguised principal is no longer accruing interest for the remainder of the loan. The earlier you begin paying extra the more money you'll save.
This amortization schedule shows that paying an additional $300 each month will shorten the life of the mortgage from 30 years to about 21 years and 10 months (262 months vs. 360). It will also reduce the total amount of interest paid over the life of the mortgage by $209,948.
As noted above, your estimated monthly payment for a $500K mortgage will be $3,360.16, assuming a 30-year loan term and an interest rate of 7.1%. But this payment could range between $2,600 and $4,900 depending on your term and interest rate.