McAllen is a city located in Hidalgo County in the State of Texas. McAllen, TX is at the southern tip of Texas which is an area well known as the Rio Grande Valley. The population of McAllen, TX is approximately 140,000. The southern boundary of McAllen is only five miles away from the Mexico-US border and the Rio Grande River.
After you have found a home, or already live in a home, you will have various financial needs, such as a mortgage, refinancing or home equity loan.
A mortgage is money that a lender borrows you to purchase a home. In return, you pay the lender monthly, bi-weekly or weekly mortgage payments on the principal amount of the mortgage plus interest. Every time you pay your mortgage payment, a certain amount of it goes towards the principal of the mortgage and the rest is interest. At the start of your mortgage, you will be paying more in interest than on principal, but as time goes by, the ratio of principal to interest increases in your favor. The money that is applied to the principal is known as home equity. Once you have accrued a significant amount of home equity you can borrow the money back in a home equity loan.
Mortgages are amortized for the full amount over a period of 15 to 30 years. The longer the amortization, the smaller your mortgage payments and the more interest you pay. Mortgages are then set in terms of two to five years and, at the end of the term, you can refinance your mortgage with new terms, new interest rate and new products, such as a different type of mortgage. Some mortgages allow you to make extra payments to a maximum of a certain percentage of the principal. Making these extra payments will drop the amortization time and when you refinance, could mean lower monthly payments.
Once you own a home for a while and have built up home equity, you can get a home equity loan and borrow the money you have “saved” in your home to use as you see fit. Some lenders will allow you to borrow up to 100 percent of the home equity you have built. You can use this money from the home equity loan in a variety of ways like financing a college education, to renovate and improve your home, to take a family vacation or pay off other bills and loans that have higher interest rates.
There are generally two types of home equity loans available: open and closed. Open home equity loans are more of a revolving line of credit with the maximum being the equity in your home that you have borrowed. You can access it at any time and are required to make minimum monthly payments. The minimum payment each month is the interest being charged to you. If you pay more than the minimum, then the money is applied back to your home equity and is once again accessible to you. Closed home equity loans only give you one large lump sum of money, and then you make monthly payments to pay it back. You cannot borrow again from the same loan or the equity in your home until you have paid back the original home equity loan.
There are a wide variety of mortgages and home equity loans to help you with purchasing a home in McAllen, TX. By filling out the form below, we can help you find the right mortgage, home equity loan or help you refinance with the right product at the best term and interest rate for you.
