Housing Loan Calculator – Making Sense Out Of It

When you are purchasing or refinancing a house, you will inevitably come across a housing loan calculator (also known as mortgage calculator).

It is commonly used by mortgage bankers to help illustrate the details of a housing loan for you to more easily understand the whole deal.

A proper housing loan calculator will help you plan your personal finances accordingly so that you can repay the property loan comfortably.

It illustrates your payments showing an amortized schedule breakdown.

A proper relevant Singapore home loan calculator should allow you to input your loan quantum amount, term or tenor, home loan interest rates for at least the initial 5 years.

When you key in these figures into the calculator, the information you are looking for should then be tabulated in a table for you to scrutinize. Otherwise it would difficult to make sense of all the numbers.

The mortgage loan calculator can be confusing especially if it is the first time you are trying to make sense of it.

These are some of the terms that you should have a better understanding.

Housing Loan Balance

The first thing to note is the principal amount.

If you are applying for a mortgage refinance, this amount is the original loan amount that is still outstanding, called the loan balance.

It can also be called the amount financed by the lender if it is a new loan.

For a new home purchase, this is the amount that you are borrowing.

For loan refinancing, this is the amount that is outstanding on your current housing loan.

Rate of Interest

One of the critical factors in determining monthly payments is the interest rate.

This can cost you tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of the loan.

Origination fees are fees added to the principal balance of the loan in exchange for a lower interest rate.

This is generally not a good idea because this fee can never be recovered regardless of when you pay off the mortgage.

Tenure

The loan tenure is the duration of the loan usually described in number of months.

A 15 year loan tenure is equivalent to 180 months.

Taxes And Insurance

Mortgage calculators can calculate and show the total costs that you will have to pay.

It can show taxes, home insurance, and other related costs expected to incur for the duration of the housing loan.

The mortgage breakdown can be illustrated and calculated with or without this information.

Amortization

The results of the calculator can be illustrated in a table for you to easily observe the details of the housing loan.

An amortization schedule will show your payments in future and the outstanding loan amount in the future.

This information helps you to also see the interest you will pay over the whole period of the housing loan.

Interest And Principal Portion

The monthly payments that you will see generated by the housing loan calculator will show how much of the payments are for interest and how much are for principal payments.

This can show you the outstanding principal at different periods of the housing loan.

It can also help you better understand how interest charges are calculated.

If you are already planning to repay the loan, this timeline would also help you identify when would be a most suitable time to pay off the loan.

Monthly Installments

When annual interest rate changes, the monthly installment commitments should be adjusted accordingly.

This is where you will also see adjustments to the repayment on principle and interest portions that the payments are made to.

Cumulative Interest Paid And Outstanding Amount

This is where you will see the accumulated total interest paid and the outstanding principle amount owing at any point in future.

Cumulative interest paid will only increase over time, while outstanding principle amount owing will decrease.

At the end of the data generated by the Singapore housing loan calculator, the outstanding principle owing will be zero.