Durham Region Home Ownership:

Accelerated bi-weekly payments can put thousands of dollars back in your pocket without the need to save up lump sum payments and with today's low interest rates you would be crazy not to use this mortgage eating technique.

Just divide your monthly payment by two and pay that amount every two weeks.  For example, if your monthly payment is $1,454, your bi-weekly payment would be $727.  There will be 26 payments over the course of the year -- equivalent to 13 monthly payments.  You'll be slipping in an extra payment each year without ever noticing it. 

On a mortgage of $250,000 amortized over 25 years with 5 year interest terms of 5%, you’d save over $31,000 and pay your mortgage off nearly 4 years sooner with an accelerated bi-weekly payment schedule as opposed to traditional monthly payments. Plus, this is after-tax money since our mortgages in Canada are not tax deductable.

Another techique to knock down the mortgage is to apply an extra 100 or 200 dollars to each payment and ask your bank to put that money right towards the principal. Using this technique on a variable mortgage will cushion you when interest rates begin to rise and also help you to pay your mortgage faster!

Interest rates are at Generational lows. This is the time to take advantage of home ownership and build equity faster than ever before!