Finally being able to buy your house because you got the mortgage you wanted is an exciting thing. Many mortgage possibilities are available, but a balloon mortgage may be the thing that you need to get moved in. Here are some things you need to know about balloon mortgages that will enable you to decide if this type of mortgage can help you.
A balloon mortgage is taken out for a 30-year period, like an ordinary mortgage, but paid back much sooner. These are often paid back in 5 or 7 years, but recently a 15-year option has become rather popular. At the end of this period of time, the mortgage becomes fully due – it must be paid off. Since most people cannot pay it off because the balance is still quite large, there is a guaranteed option of refinancing – at the market rate at the time.
This makes a balloon mortgage in some ways both like a fixed rate mortgage and an adjustable rate mortgage (ARM). It is like a fixed rate mortgage in that it has a fixed payment over a certain period of time. On the other hand, a balloon mortgage is like an ARM because the guaranteed level of interest goes to an unknown rate – to whatever the interest rate is...