013, Mortgaging a House

So, we covered ratios in the last post. The focus of that post was to show you the basics of a ratio for buying a house. Now you know and understand the ratios that are recommended in relation to your income. You understand that the 20% recommended down payment is the minimum you should put down on a house. Let’s run through a few examples to show you the impacts of a few scenarios. Sometimes a picture is worth a lot of words. In this case, the picture will be a spreadsheet. Before we get started, here are some of the areas we’ll cover.

I ran all of the calculations through Mortgagecalculator.org. It has the most complete variables necessary to truly capture all of the costs. Be wary of the bank calculators that only show principle and interest. While that’s a big portion of your monthly rate, it’s not the whole picture. So, I’m going to lay out a few things in this post to help you truly capture the total costs you can expect.

First, there’s the purchase price. You may hear people say things like “I paid $200,000 for the house”. They are referring to the purchase price. By the end of this post, you will know the cost of the house will be much more than the purchase price… unless you pay in cash.

Then there’s the down payment. You’ll want to put 20% or more down on a house so you avoid paying PMI (Private Mortgage Insurance). Remember that’s where you get to pay for the bank’s insurance in case you don’t make good on your money. That 20% should be your minimum. You can put down as much more as you want.

Next comes taxes. You can’t get away from taxes. Taxes can be a considerable expense…especially in Texas, where I’m writing this post. What Texas loses in income tax, they make up for in property taxes.

You’ll also want to have insurance. This isn’t the PMI insurance. This is the homeowner’s insurance that you pay for things like a hail storm that trashes your roof, fence, etc. The bank will require you to have insurance if you finance. If you pay in cash, it’s a good idea to pay just to protect your home from an unexpected diseaster.

What we’ve covered above is referred to as PMTI. PITI is simply Principle, Interest, Taxes and Insurance. Everyone will pay those when financing a home. But don’t forget or confuse PITI with PMI. Remember PMI is that insurance for the bank that you get to pay. So, the total monthly cost will be PMTI plus PMI. The less you put down the more PMI’s cost goes up.

In order to show the differences in PMTI plus PMI, I’ll set a few variables so you can see the impact of the changes. I’ll also randomly choose Grand Prairie, Tx as our city of choice to nail down the exact taxes for a property. Limiting the variables should help you see the long term impacts to your finances for the choices you make.

The house will be a $200,000 house in Grand Prairie, Tx. The interest rate is going to be set to 4.33% which is fairly close to the current rate. Your rate will likely vary somewhat based on down payment and your credit score. So, 4.33% is good for illustration purposes. The property taxes for Grand Prairie are 2.921736% of your home value or $5,843.47 every year. That amount will be divided by twelve and added to your monthly payment. Homeowner’s insurance is set at $1,000 per year. Again this will be broken down and spread across your monthly payments. The three scenarios will be putting 5%, 10%, 20% down for your down payment.  The Term will also be either a 30 year or 15 year fixed rate mortgage.

Take a good look at the chart.  Study it for a bit and see if you can find the Big Rocks.

The first thing I see is that the final cost for the house could be anywhere from $257,824.10 to $357,377.24.  So, depending on how you set up financing for your house, you could pay a lot more.  Maybe this would help with some perspective on just how much that is.  Let’s say you make $57,000 per year.  If you are inefficient you would work for more than 3 years just to pay for the interest and PMI if you put minimal down and finance for 30 years.  You’d only have to work for one year to pay for the interest if you put 20% down and got a 15 year mortgage.

The second thing I see is that by far, the biggest difference in what you pay in interest is determined by the length of financing.  The longer you finance, the more you pay in interest.  Many folks say that they will finance for 30 years and pay early.  Statistically, they don’t though.  So, if you are in that small percentage, you’re likely not. I tried that and didn’t do well.  It wasn’t until I locked myself into the 15 year mortgage that I actually stuck to it.

The last thing I see is more of a reflection.  Being in the military, I’ve never truly owned any houses. I mortgaged them.  So, I’ve pretty much have been paying interest for most of my adult life.  While I did make money on every house I’ve mortgaged, it was done through improvements, etc.  I’ve never run the numbers, but I’d be lucky to break even considering all the interest I paid.  I wonder if I would have come out cheaper if I only rented and paid cash for a house.

So, as you can see from the chart above, there’s a lot of ways you can buy a house. This post points out a few different ways and for many different lengths of time.  Use this information and the thoughts to do it as efficiently as you possible can.  In just this one example, it could mean you save about $100,000.  What can you do with $100,000????

You now have the tools to make an efficient decision. Don’t be Average!