Homeowner Education

Prime rate is the interest rate that banks charge their preferred customers, or those with the highest credit ratings. It is used to determine borrowing

The principal is the amount due on any debt before interest, or the amount invested before returns. All loans start as principal, and for every

Your mortgage preapproval is a statement of how much money a lender is willing to let you borrow to pay for a house.

Prepayment penalty is a provision in a mortgage contract that requires the borrower to pay a penalty if the mortgage is paid off within a

Homebuyers can buy points to reduce how much interest they pay on their mortgage loan over its lifetime. A point is equal to 1 percent

A portfolio lender is a bank or lending institution that originates mortgages and holds them in its own portfolio instead of selling them to the

A piggyback loan is a second loan on top of a conventional mortgage loan that makes it possible to finance a real estate purchase without

The periodic rate is the interest rate charged over a certain number of time periods. The periodic rate equals the annual interest rate divided by

Per diem interest is the amount of interest charged on a daily basis for a just-closed mortgage.

Paydown is the process of reducing the amount owed on a mortgage or other loan over time by making partial payments toward the debt.