Anyone have a 15 year mortgage?

JOEBunny

Did you start out with that or re-finance to it?

Are you glad you did it? 

How long do you plan to be in your house?

What was your reasoning?  Obviously, you pay less over time, but you also get less tax benefit and have less money to use now. 

DandR

We do.  It was only a few bucks more per month and paid off a lot sooner.

We aren't planning on being in this house for long...maybe a few more years....we've been here 6 years so far. 

I have no problem with less tax benefit...I like knowing that my house could be paid off in 9 years if we stay.

 

hcmamm1

Did you start out with that or re-finance to it? We started out with a 30yr at 8%. A year later rates dropped to under 6%. At that time we refinance at a lower rate for only 15 years.

Are you glad you did it? Yes so glad we did it.  To think that in only 8 years we are past the half way point on owing our house. Plus the equity we already have.

How long do you plan to be in your house? Hoping to buy a new home next year.

What was your reasoning?  Obviously, you pay less over time, but you also get less tax benefit and have less money to use now.  By us able to lower the rate and time period, our payment only went up $200.  For an extra 200, we will own our house in less time. I think that is awesome.

OctoberBrideNYC

We do.  We started out with a 20 yr mortgage and our rate was 6.75% (we bought in 2006).  When rates plummeted, we refinanced to 4.25% for 15 years.  We did it because it wasn't much more money, and I didn't want to reset the clock at zero after we had already been paying for 3-4 years (I know, weird logic).  I'm happy we did it!

 ETA: We are in our forever house. . .I think.  If we weren't, I would never have done a 15 yr mortgage (or a 20 yr one for that matter).  

KellyGreen

No, but we refinced a year ago to a 20-year.

I am glad we did it.

We don't know how long we will be here.  We got nearly a point lower interest rate and this forces us to build our equity faster.  This is not our forever house.

AggieCouple

- We refinanced to it.  I think we started off with a 30 year.

- Yes.  There's nothing H and I hate more than paying interest.  Our house value has gone up, not down, and its value didn't seem to be part of the bubble, so I think the value will just continue to rise.  Even though we have less money to spend now, that "less money" is in an upward mobile investment.  But the biggest benefit is, across the mortgage span, we will pay less than 1/2 the interest we would have paid in a 30 year mortgage, even without the lower interest rate.  But we did get a lower rate with the 15 year, and that makes the accumulated interest a great deal lower as well.

- Either 2 years or for a really long time.  I'd like to move to a specific part of the city by the time ML starts 1st grade, but if we can't make it by then (it will require more income than we currently make), we will probably stick around until they graduate. 

Baby4OT

Started in 2006 with a 30yr mortgage and refinanced over the winter to a 15-yr with a substantially lower interest rate.

Yes - our monthkly payments are lower now and if we stay here forever, we'll be done making mortgage payments when the kids are in college. The tax implications suck, but overall it seemed to be a good move.