There is always a debate when home buyers have to decide on the merits of 15 or 30 year fixed mortgage rates. Buying a home later in life means that many people want to have the mortgage paid off early. Decisions of this nature need careful consideration before any commitment is made. Home buyers looking into this need to be assured their monthly payments will not increase.

Steer clear of lenders that are offering unbelievable deals because they probably are. A 15 year fixed rate mortgage means the interest rate remains stable for the life of the loan.

If you are someone that wants a loan with a regular fixed repayment and no additional charges then this is the main benefit with this type of agreement. My wife and I looked into the loans available with 15 year fixed mortgage rates when we were searching for a home for sale.

Having a realistic, sustainable monthly payment on our mortgage was important even though we wanted to pay off our debt as soon as possible. This meant we had to consider 30 year fixed rate mortgage plans as well as those of 15 years.

Still, having a mortgage close to retirement was not what we were looking for, so we decided to try for a loan with a 15 year fixed mortgage. There was obviously very good reasons to finish paying the loan off early.

After taking everything into consideration we decided on a 30 year loan instead. There were many things that factored into this decision. Finding out my wife was having a baby made making the choice so much easier!

My wife decided she wanted to raise our child at home so I could not be certain of her monthly financial commitment to our household expenses. The downside to the 15 year fixed mortgage rate was the higher monthly repayment. We just decided we would probably get into trouble if we took this route. A thirty year loan brought the monthly payments down to a reasonable level.

If we have spare cash throughout the year then we can use it to reduce the capital sum. By doing this you can also reduce the term of the mortgage by quite a few years. This is well worth it in the long term but it does require some discipline. Our first choice would have been to go for the short term 15 year fixed rate mortgage solution but this did not help with our more immediate situation. As it is, things worked out very well for us by taking this route.