Mortgage : Home Loans : Refinance : Home Equity Loans

By Ben Afzal

Basics

Mortgage calculators can help you decide a number of issues, including:

The most basic thing to consider is how much debt you will have with a mortgage, and compare this to your pretax income. Lenders generally like to see you debt/income ratio to be no more than 40%, although many go higher than this and some as high as 55%.

To figure out your total income you should add:

• Income
• Total Income (Pre-Tax)
• Base Income
• Overtime Bonuses
• Commissions
• Dividends
• Interest
• Net Rent
• Other

This is a comprehensive list. Keep in mind that if you have a totally new source of income, such as commissions, or if the income stream is relatively new a lender will look at this more carefully. Lenders like to see stability and a track record for income.

Debt

Now you can add up your total debts:

• Credit cards
• Auto loans
• Student loans
• Other loans

All of these debts are usually listed on your credit report.

• Monthly Payment
• Your monthly housing payment will include:
• Home Payment Calculated
• Monthly hazard insurance
• Monthly property taxes
• Monthly mortgage insurance
• Monthly home owners insurance
• Home owners association dues

The critical number here is your home payment. You can guess a total amount and an interest rate (or get some mortgage quotes and plug them in).

This type of mortgage calculator will help you answer how much you can afford.

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For additional Mortgage Refinancing information
and resources visit Mortgage Refinancing.
(http://www.refinance-refinance.net)
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This entry was posted on Thursday, October 12th, 2006 at 2:19 am and is filed under Refinance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.