Downtown Boston real estate for sale
Paying off your Boston condo mortgage debt
- There are immediate benefits to paying off a mortgage: Your monthly obligations drop and you may get more wiggle room in your cash flow.
- However, there could be financial implications that you’d need to be okay with.
- Here’s what the experts say.
It’s one of those debates that rarely seems to have a clear-cut winner: Should retirees pay off their mortgage or continue making those monthly payments?
The answer — probably somewhat annoyingly — is that it depends.
However, depending on where the pay-off money would come from — as well as your tax situation and your available remaining assets — there could be financial implications that would need to sit well with you.
Boston condo owners: Here’s what to consider.
Depending on the mortgage loan you have, you may still have quite a few years’ worth of mortgage payments left. For these long-term loans, you’ll end up paying a large amount of interest in addition to the amount you were loaned. However, if you plan on saving and purchasing Boston high rise condo, there are certain things you can do to reduce your mortgage debt or pay your debt off early.
1. Decrease Other Debt
Paying down other debt can make it easier to reduce mortgage debt. As you pay down credit card debt and other forms of credit, you’ll start to have more money that can then go toward the mortgage. You can either choose to make a one-time additional payment each year or take the amount you were paying toward your credit card debt and put it into your monthly mortgage payments. Additionally, focusing on getting rid of your other debt leaves you with a lot of options, including being able to create an emergency fund to keep your mortgage payments on time should you get injured in an accident or lose your income.
2. Refinance as You Go
In some cases, you may be able to lower your monthly mortgage payments, which would ultimately reduce your mortgage debt, by refinancing your current loan. Refinancing is when you replace your current loan with a new loan. This process can be advantageous for those who have a loan with high interest rates that are locked. Refinancing with a loan that has a lower interest rate means you end up paying less in interest, potentially allowing you to pay off your mortgage several years earlier than you originally planned. You may also end up paying less in the long run.
3. Make an Additional Payment
Most people make one mortgage payment a month. However, if you make one additional payment each year, those payments add up. With this strategy, you may be able to pay a 30-year mortgage in less than 25 years. Another way to make this type of strategy work is to set up a bi-weekly payment schedule. If the bank cannot set up this type of mortgage, a borrower could get around this by multiplying the amount of each payment by 1.083, which ends up being the equivalent of 13 months’ worth of payments every year.
4. Put Pay Raises Toward the Mortgage
When some people get a raise or a bonus, they may want to use that money to go on vacation or upgrade some of their furniture. However, some of the additional money can be put to good use by having it go toward the mortgage of your Beacon Hill condo. For example, if 25 percent of a person’s income goes toward the mortgage, he or she could easily make incrementally larger payments after a raise. This strategy could shave years or even a decade of mortgage payments off.
Boston Real Estate and the Bottom Line
As always, check with your accountant before making any big financial decisions
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Condos around the Beacon Hill area to rent:
Back Bay area condos for rent
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Charlestown area condos for rent
Navy Yard Charlestown area condos for rent
Dorchester area condos for rent
Fenway area condos for rent
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Midtown area condos for rent
Seaport District area condos for rent
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South End area condos for rent
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