A 15-year mortgage costs less in the long run since the total interest payments are less than a 30-year mortgage. The cost of a mortgage is calculated based on an annual interest rate, and since you're borrowing the money for half as long, the total interest paid will likely be half of what you'd pay over 30 years.
A 15-year mortgage forces you to buckle down and get rid of the debt in half the time compared to a 30 year. As an added bonus because your term is shorter, you'll get a better interest rate which could be anywhere from a quarter to a half of percent, which makes a big difference over time.
The main reason to consider a 15-year note over a 30 year is that the interest rate is typically lower. At today's rates, the difference is about 0.25%. For a 15 year mortgage at 3.75%, where the monthly P&I would be $5817; it means a difference of $1998.
Disadvantages of a 15-year fixed mortgage
Larger monthly payments: A loan term that's half as long means your monthly payments will be larger than they would be with a 30-year mortgage. Potentially tougher qualification requirements: Your lender will want to verify that you make enough to afford these larger payments.
If you originally got a 15-year mortgage but find the payments challenging, refinancing to a 30-year loan can lower your payments by as much as several hundred dollars each month. Conversely, if you have a 30-year mortgage, a 15-year term can help you build equity much faster.
Current mortgage interest rates in California. As of Monday, January 13, 2025, current interest rates in California are 7.33% for a 30-year fixed mortgage and 6.61% for a 15-year fixed mortgage. This aligns with current national mortgage rate trends.
It suggests that homeowners who can afford substantial extra payments can pay off a 30-year mortgage in 15 years by making a weekly extra payment, equal to 10% of their monthly mortgage payment, toward the principal.
Whether you should fix your mortgage for 2 or 5 years depends on you and your individual circumstances. Fixing your mortgage for 2 years can give you certainty and stability in the short-term, and can also be the right choice if you only plan on staying in your home for a few years.
You pay more interest
For this reason, lenders charge higher interest rates on loans with longer terms. This may seem obvious, but it's also something to consider: when you choose a 30-year mortgage loan term, you will pay more interest than if you were to choose a shorter loan term. It's that simple.
By making 2 additional principal payments each year, you'll pay off your loan significantly faster: Without extra payments: 30 years. With 2 extra payments per year: About 24 years and 7 months.
Do you have a 15- or 30-year fixed-rate loan that you'd like to pay down faster? You might find that making extra payments on your mortgage can help you repay your loan more quickly, and with less interest than making payments according to loan's original payment terms.
Con: More Lifetime Interest Paid
By their nature, a longer-term loan means more time spent paying interest. Combined with the long repayment term, interest rate charges are higher on a 30-year mortgage.
You build home equity faster.
In other words, you want more of your monthly payment to go toward the principal—not interest—so you can own more of your home. With the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage, you pay more toward the principal and build equity faster from your very first monthly payment.
However, nearly every economic forecast is predicting lower rates in 2024. The Mortgage Bankers Association's Mortgage Finance Forecast for September 2023 predicts 30-year fixed mortgage rates will be in the 5% range for most of 2024: Q1: 6.1%
The most common terms are two years fixes and five year fixes, however, an increasing number of people are fixing for 10 years or more. Short term fixed-rate mortgage deals ensure that you don't miss out on lower rates for too long, should they fall suddenly. But they also mean remortgaging more frequently.
Since you're making bigger monthly payments on a 15-year mortgage, you'll pay down the interest a lot faster, which means more of your payment will go to the principal every month. On the flip side, the smaller monthly payments of a 30-year mortgage will have you paying down the interest a lot slower.
By paying more than your required monthly mortgage payment, you can put that extra money directly toward the principal amount on your loan. Your interest payment is based on your principal balance, so by applying your extra payment to your principal, you could pay less in interest over time.
Putting just $200 more per month toward principal, you'd save $80,837 in interest and pay off the mortgage six years and four months earlier. To pay off this same mortgage in 15 years, however, you would need to put an extra $787 per month from the outset of the mortgage.
The 2% rule states that you should aim for a 2% lower interest rate in order to ensure that the savings generated by your new loan will offset the cost refinancing, provided you've lived in your home for two years and plan to stay for at least two more.
At its February 2024 meeting, the Reserve Bank Board decided to leave the cash rate target unchanged at 4.35 per cent. This decision supports progress of inflation to the midpoint of the 2–3 per cent target range within a reasonable timeframe and continued moderate growth in employment.
The easiest and most fruitful way for homebuyers and existing homeowners to lower their mortgage rate is to compare rates among lenders, but borrowers can also be opportunistic by taking out a mortgage in January when rates tend to be at seasonal lows.