Prospective homebuyers now can ask a very familiar source to calculate traditional mortgage payments: Google. However, there are no immediate plans for a tool to calculate reverse mortgages, a spokesman confirmed to Reverse Mortgage Daily.
“Preparing for homeownership just got a bit easier,” the company announced Tuesday in a Google Plus post. Users can access the feature by searching for “mortgage calculator.” The tool also is activated when a user plugs a relevant question into the search engine, such as “How much can I borrow over 10 years at 5% APR?” It works on mobile devices as well.
The calculator takes into account the time period, interest rate and base amount to generate the total cost and monthly payments for conventional mortgages.
Other online mortgage calculators offer more precise estimates than Google’s, some media outlets noted. For example, real estate website Zillow has a tool that generates down payment and property tax numbers, Mashable pointed out.
In 2012, Google shut down its Advisor Mortgage platform, which had allowed people to compare mortgage rates across states. State licensing issues might have been behind the decision, although a Google spokeswoman said at the time that users had not embraced the product.
Written by Tim Mullaney
