What does my monthly payment pay for?

As you probably noticed the previous chart only shows what you will be paying towards your loan. Other costs that are usually factored into the monthly payment will be homeowners insurance, mortgage insurance, and taxes. These amounts vary widely and depending on a multitude of factors so there really are no accurate estimates, but we can throw a dart at it!  For FHA Loans, you can add an additional 2.1% of the purchase price of the home divided out by the 12 months (example: $100,000 purchase price would mean that taxes, insurance, and mortgage insurance would be about $210 per month).  

Don't know what your monthly housing budget is? There are plenty of financial planners in the area that can help you through a budget, or you can do it yourself utilizing anything from a scratch piece of paper to any of a number of computer programs that are available: 

http://www.microsoft.com/money
http://www.quicken.com  

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