What You Should Know About Balloon Mortgages
Wednesday, August 4th, 2010Balloon mortgage is for instance a short-term loan which home buyers could have in a given period of five or seven years. In the first five or seven years depending on the time frame approved for your mortgage, you are given the chance to pay the monthly amortization in a fixed interest rate with much lower amount. This is the feature of balloon mortgage which makes it a similar loan to fixed rate mortgage.
However, at the end of the loan term, your outstanding balance or principal is not fully paid unlike in the case of fixed rate mortgage when your loan is already matured, it is understood that you have paid off the entire loan. In the case of balloon mortgage, the loan inflates since the outstanding payment or principal amount is already included. At the end of the fifth or seventh year, you could either choose to refinance your loan if you opt to stay or keep the house or you could sell at to pay off the remaining balance.
There is another option which you could choose which is the conversion or reset balloon mortgage which gives you the chance to extend your loan term and pay in the current interest rate. If you choose to refinance, there are risks and stakes you need to deal with such as paying a much higher interest rate should there be differences or fluctuations in the market. Moreover, if you could not qualify for the refinancing and fail to get a new home mortgage, then you risk losing your house to foreclosure or being forced to sell it in the end after all.