property hazard insurance premiums.
Getting a loan to purchase a home can be a tricky business, and there are terms one might find hard to understand — e.g., the term “mortgage points,” which refers to the interest that’s been prepaid. It’s possible to lower your mortgage loan’s interest rate by “buying points.” Mortgage points, or discount points, are fees paid directly to the lender at closing in exchange for a reduced interest rate. This is also called “buying down the rate,” and will decrease your monthly mortgage payments. One point costs 1% of your mortgage amount (or $1,000 for every $100,000). Essentially, you pay some interest upfront in exchange for a lower interest rate over the life of your loan. In general, the longer you plan to own the home, the more points help you save on interest over the life of the loan. For example, Bank of America, Better Money Habits, uses a chart illustrating points using a loan amount of $200,000. It’s possible to buy the points to ensure the interest rates are low when you’re getting the loan. Buying the points can help you down the line by guaranteeing that you save money, especially if you plan to stay in the house for an extended period. However, the amount of cash you’ll save by buying the points depends on the number of points you buy. For instance, if your mortgage is $200,000 and you buy two points, you will owe $4,000 when closing. Further related to taxes and property ownership is that once you own a house, you’re a property owner, with the attendant obligation to pay property taxes. The usual method of paying property taxes is to escrow the amount of annual taxes within the mortgage payment. The
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