Yahoo (YHOO) is joining fellow Internet search giant Google (GOOG) in offering a built-in mortgage calculator, available both within searches and as standalone page.
Yahoo users now see a native mortgage calculator when conducting searches for like, “mortgage calculator,” “loan interest calculator,” and “interest calculator.”
Google also quietly rolled out its own built-in mortgage calculator in February, share sharing details on the mortgage calculator on its Google+ page.
“Preparing for homeownership just got a bit easier,” Google’s post stated. “Starting today you can ask Google things like ‘How much can I borrow at $200 a month?’ or ‘At 5% APR how much can I borrow over 10 years?’ You can even adjust the mortgage amount, interest rate, mortgage period and more to see which financial options fit your needs.?”
Now Yahoo is offering up its own mortgage calculator, seen in the image below (click to enlarge)
Yahoo’s mortgage calculator appears to be more robust than Google’s option. A user can add in their projected property tax percentage, plus the expected yearly cost of home insurance into their mortgage payment calculation, in addition to the home’s value, expected down payment, preferred loan term, and projected interest rate.
Additionally, users can see their estimated mortgage payments by month, broken down by how much of the payment is going to principal, interest and taxes. The Yahoo tool also allows users to see the total amount they would pay for their mortgage over the total loan term.
Also, unlike Google, Yahoo features a standalone page for their mortgage calculator, seen in the image below (click to enlarge).
On that page, Yahoo offers the following explanation for the mortgage calculator:
The loan amount, the interest rate, and the term of the mortgage can have a dramatic effect on the total amount you will eventually pay for the property. Further, mortgage payments typically will include monthly allocations of property taxes, hazard insurance, and (if applicable) private mortgage insurance (PMI). Use our mortgage calculator to see the impact of these variables along with an amortization schedule.
On this page, users can added in the sales price of the subject property, and enter in the annual property tax amount, annual hazard insurance amount and monthly private mortgage insurance amount or choose to allow the system to estimate the annual property tax amount, annual hazard insurance amount and monthly private mortgage insurance amount.
Once a user enters in all of the pertinent information and hits submit, Yahoo generates a comprehensive report for the user based on the user’s information.
The report shows the user how much they’ll pay out of the life of the loan in interactive graphic, as well as a breakdown by year of their beginning balance, principal, interest, payment and ending balance for the life of the loan.
The user then has the option to export the report into PDF format.
Click here to see a sample PDF generated by Yahoo using data entered by HousingWire.
Yahoo does caution users that the calculations should not be used as financial advice, stating the following in a disclaimer:
This information may help you analyze your financial needs. It is based on information and assumptions provided by you regarding your goals, expectations and financial situation. The calculations do not infer that the company assumes any fiduciary duties. The calculations provided should not be construed as financial, legal or tax advice. In addition, such information should not be relied upon as the only source of information. This information is supplied from sources we believe to be reliable but we cannot guarantee its accuracy. Hypothetical illustrations may provide historical or current performance information. Past performance does not guarantee nor indicate future results.
But, with Yahoo joining Google in offering a built-in mortgage calculator, plus Google reportedly preparing to launch a mortgage comparison tool, the digitization of mortgages does not appear to be slowing down.
