Quote:
Originally Posted by ah123
Flexibility. You can choose a 30 year amortization and increase your payment and payment frequency. If you run into any sort of financial trouble in the future, you can change your payment amount to the minimum amount required (which would be lower on a 30 year am vs a 25 year am).
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This one right here. When I purchased my house I bought a decent sized starter home but didn't over-extend myself. Being a first home, I wasn't sure how impacted I was going to be with the mortgage, so I opted for the 35 year amortization. After seeing what that was like for the first 6 months/year I increased the payments and cut the original 35 years down to 17.
Now if things hit the fan with the economy, my industry/career, interest rates, or I get remarried and end up having 8 kids, I can still fall back on that 35 year amortization after hammering down principle in the 'good years', without stressing about making the mortgage payments, and would stretch my rainy day fund out a little bit longer.
Although I'm going to have to assume a lot of people opting for the 35 year mortgage was just to afford a bigger house.