The process of buying a house can definitely be overwhelming, but it is of course worth it, and as long as you take the time to learn about even the basics, the entire ordeal will be an incredible amount easier on you. There are many things in specific to learn about mortgage insurance, and one of the biggest debates regarding it is whether you should go with mortgage insurance or term life insurance.
Whether you are buying a home for the first time or refinancing an existing mortgage, most likely at some point during either process someone suggested that you should purchase mortgage insurance. However this is certainly something that you do not want to rush into and you definitely want to make sure that you are open and look at all the different possibilities.
What Mortgage Insurance is
Also known as mortgage life insurance, it is a type of insurance which is offered by most banks and lending institutions and it is a specific life insurance policy that pays the balance of your mortgage to the lending institution if a person who is listed on the mortgage passes away.
Mortgage Insurance Vs. Term Life Insurance
This is the biggest question in this regards, and there are many advantages and disadvantages to both. Depending on your age and health, you really need to take into account how well off you are and about all of the money that your family would need to get by in case something unfortunate were to happen to you. Definitely not the happiest thing to think about, but being prepared means that you are worrying about the safety of your family, and it is thus really a necessity.
There are certain advantages that you get if you are generally healthy, for instance if you are a non-smoker than you are almost assured to get much better life insurance rate if you chose a term life insurance policy over the mortgage life insurance option, but regardless of which you went with, you would still get a better rate than a smoker.
You also typically get extra coverage with the term insurance options, and mortgage life insurance policies generally only cover you for the amount of your mortgage that you owe to the bank, and as you continue paying down your mortgage, your coverage amount decreases as well. This is called a reducing balance', however with a term life insurance policy, you always have a constant level of coverage for the whole term and are therefore getting a better value overall for your monthly payments.
You just really need to take everything into consideration and then figure out what the best option is for you.
