This is your marginal tax rate, the rate at which each additional dollar of income will be taxed. If you pay only Federal income taxes, it is the highest tax bracket you used when you calculated your taxes. Federal tax brackets currently are: 10%, 15%, 25%, 28%, 33%, and 35%. If you also pay state and/or local income taxes, these marginal rates can be added to the Federal rate. For example, if you had to pay 25% to the IRS and 5% to the state of Pennsylvania, your tax bracket is 30%. To perform a "pre-tax" analysis enter zero (0) as the tax rate.The period cannot exceed the shortest mortgage term. The period may be stated in fractions. For example, 25 years and 1 month would be entered as 25.083, 25 years and two months would be 25.167, and 25 years and 3 months would be 25.25, etc.All settlement costs that might differ between any two deals. This includes all lender fees of any sort, and all third
party fees (such as title insurance, apprraisals and credit report), but
excluding charges of governments which cannot vary from one deal to another.
Do not include escrow reserves for taxes and insurance, or prepaid (per
diem) interest.This affects tax savings on points because on a purchase transaction points are fully deductible in the first year whereas on a refinance the deduction must be spread over the life of the loan.This is the interest rate you could earn on the monies you spend during the period you are in your home. For most people, it would be the interest rate on a bank account or a money market fund. In after-tax cost comparisons, this figure is adjusted to an after-tax basis.The size of the mortgage insurance monthly premium is triggered by the down payment percentage. Mortgage insurance premiums drop significantly as the down payment crosses the 3%, 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% levels. When deciding on your down payment be sure to take this into account. To perform a "pre-tax" analysis select "Pre-Tax" from the drop down list.Estimate all closing costs other than points and enter your estimate for each loan here. For further information, read "How to Shop Settlement Costs". (Click on link at bottom of page)This is required only if your are now paying mortgage insurance. If you are paying mortgage insurance, we need to know the value of your house when the current loan was taken out so that we can figure out when the insurance payment will stop. We assume it stops when the balance reaches 78% of original value.The mortgage insurance premium is calculated automatically but you can override it.If you enter a value, mortgage insurance will be terminated when the loan balance equals 80% of the appreciated value of the property.If you select "80% of Property Value" above, the first and second mortgage amounts are calculated automatically. If you select "User Specified", you must enter a first mortgage amount that is less than 80% of propertry value, and the second mortgage amount will be calculated automatically. Try the "User Specified" option when a loan equal to 80% of value exceeds the maximum conforming loan limit, which in April 2002 was $300,700. Because the interest rate is higher on loans larger than that amount, it may pay to take a conforming loan that is smaller than 80% of value, even though that means that the second mortgage will be larger.
