The term of your first time mortgage is how long you agree it will take for you to pay back your loan. Historically, 30 years tends to be the most common, but in recent years all sorts of variations have occurred. Additionally, with home prices skyrocketing for a while, even 40 year terms were beginning to appear to make it still affordable to buy a house.
	However, for the more prudent and discipline, terms can be as low as a 20-, 15-, and even 10-year mortgages. The big factor on what term to have depends on how much of a monthly payment your wallet can handle. If you can dedicate a big payment to your mortgage, then you may want to look at a smaller term. If you can only handle a 25 percent of your income payment, then you’re better off with a 30-year mortgage. Longer-term mortgages will have lower monthly payments because the loan takes longer to pay. This is made up by a longer period in which to collect interest, so the lender is paid well for the wait. The longer term works best for folks on a limited budget who still want homeownership over renting. It also allows borrowers to divert their income to other investments. But keep in mind you still have a large loan so no matter how much you invest your portfolio is still in the red until your mortgage is paid off. Shorter-term loans obviously include a higher monthly payment since the loan has to be paid off faster and cannot be spread over as many months. However, the flip side is that the borrower spends less time paying a loan and it costs less overall with less time for interest charges. Lenders are more than willing to work with buyers in a variety of ways. The trick to balancing the benefits and drawbacks is to do comparison-shopping and find the plan that works best for your interests in home-ownership. Do you plan to stay in the same job and town for 30 years? Or do you see yourself as a traveler? Is your life and employment stable or transitory? Do you want a long-term obligation or short, easy to step away commitments? How you answer these questions will have an influence on which first time mortgage option works best for you.