15 Year Fixed Rate Mortgage – A type of mortgage where the interest rate never changes for the duration of the loan. Unless the mortgage has an interest only or other payment option features, payments are amortized over 15 years, that is, the homeowner makes equal monthly payments and the entire loan would be paid off in 15 years.If you are unsure whether you will be able to continue making payments on a 15 year mortgage at some point down the road, consider a longer-term mortgage, where you pay less each month. Your mortgage professional should be able to tell you how much extra to pay each month if you still want to pay off the loan in 15 years.
Since a 15 year fixed rate mortgage comes with a considerably higher monthly payment than its 30 year counterpart, this loan would be best suited for borrowers who have good monthly cash flow. Also borrowers who have high balances on other consumer type debt would be advised to avoid this loan at least until the other debt is paid down. It usually would not make sense to accelerate the payment of low interest, tax deductable mortgage debt while slowly servicing high interest, non-tax deductable consumer debt.