I know that the calculations used by lenders for a mortgage differ from Fair Isaac (FICO). I have TrueCredit (by TransUnion) triple credit monitoring which gives me unlimited access to all three of my credit reports (TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian) AND my FICO scores. I am preparing myself for a refinance and I want to [...]

Will the decline slow the economy and cause the fed to lower rates which will then effect the prime rate that is used in mortgage calculations? Or am I way off? I don’t think the Fed is going to LOWER rates anytime soon. If you grab the Wall Street Journal and take a look at [...]

What are the calculations that will show me how these two items affect cash flow for a home owner? Go to http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040.pdf and look at the basic 1040 statement. You will see that line 22 is your total income and that line 37 is your total deductions to AGI (adjusted gross income). If you look [...]

I have a good credit score (720) and a decent down payment (20 %) but I have only been at my job 6 months, and I don’t work there in the summer. I will have to find seasonal summer work and I know that usually doesn’t count in the calculation. I plan to have a [...]

I understand that if the owner lives in a four family house, 25% of the interest is shown as a deduction on Schedule A and 75% is shown as an expense on Schedule E. However, exactly how does this benefit the owner? Lets assume the owner paid $500 over the course of the year in [...]

I am looking to buy a home and because I am putting less than 20% down I was told I have to pay private mortgage insurance, I am wondering what is the calculation in order to determine what my monthly payment of pmi will be for a loan of $115, 000. Private Mortgage Insurance rates [...]

I bought a house a year ago and am in a 30-year mortgage. I was just looking at a 30 vs 15 year calculation and the 15 year mortgage is only about $100 more a month. Can this be right? The loan is for about $63k. Can I change from a 30 year mortgage to [...]

I checked into getting a mortgage, and was told that I qualified for a mortgage of around $140,000 (which where I live is just enough to buy a crack house). With no money down, over forty years, they said my payments would be around $900 every month. I calculated that $900 a month over forty [...]

I’m trying to figure out if it is better to rent or buy a house and I’m trying to do some calculations. Lets say I borrow $200,000 at a 5% interest rate to buy a house. Theoretically, let’s say my monthly payment is $1100. After 30 years, I would have paid a total of $396,000 [...]

My arm will adjust from 5.5% in December 2007. I’m not sure we will refi since we plan to move from this home in the fall. However, if we do stay (in case home takes longer to sell) what will interest rate adjust to? Prime is at 8.75% now? Does it adjust to that rate? [...]