Compared to the 30-year fixed mortgage, the 40-year fixed mortgage offers monthly loan payments that would be less than a 30-year mortgage on the same house.

The 30-year [fixed-rate mortgage] came in under 6 percent for the last 22 weeks of this year. As a matter of fact, mortgage rates in 2004 averaged around 5.84 percent, the second lowest annual rate ever recorded in the history of Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey.

They are shocked by the increases (in monthly payments) they are getting.

Some monthly minimum payments could be twice what they were.

We wanted to keep our monthly payments similar to what they are now, and we can do that by splitting it three ways.

Choosing a house to buy is easy. The difficulty lies in getting approval for your housing loan application.