This is your marginal tax rate, the rate at which each additional dollar of income will be taxed. If you pay only Federal income taxes, it is the highest tax bracket you used when you calculated your taxes. Federal tax brackets currently are: 10%, 15%, 25%, 28%, 33%, and 35%. If you also pay state and/or local income taxes, these marginal rates can be added to the Federal rate. For example, if you had to pay 25% to the IRS and 5% to the state of Pennsylvania, your tax bracket is 30%. To perform a "pre-tax" analysis enter zero (0) as the tax rate.The period may be stated in fractions. For example, 25 years and 1 month would be entered as 25.083, 25 years and two months would be 25.167, and 25 years and 3 months would be 25.25, etc.This includes all settlement costs other than points. Any origination fees expressed as a percent of the loan amount should be included in Points. Do not include escrow reserves for taxes and insurance, or prepaid (per diem) interest.If you have not made any extra payments on your loan, this is the original term less the number of monthly payments that have been made. If you have made any extra payments, you can find the period remaining by clicking here and entering your current balance, rate, and monthly payment. Make sure the payment is principal and interest only. (click yellow icon again to make this pop-up disappear)This is the interest rate you could earn on the monies you spend during the period you are in your home. For most people, it would be the interest rate on a bank account or a money market fund. In after-tax cost comparisons, this figure is adjusted to an after-tax basis.This program automatically computes the amount of loan you need to allow you to "take out" the cash amount you specified above. To perform a "pre-tax" analysis select "Pre-Tax" from the drop down list.Estimate all closing costs other than points and enter your estimate for each loan here. For further information, read "How to Shop Settlement Costs". (Click on link at bottom of page)This is required only if your are now paying mortgage insurance. If you are paying mortgage insurance, we need to know the value of your house when the current loan was taken out so that we can figure out when the insurance payment will stop. We assume it stops when the balance reaches 78% of original value.This is required only if you are now paying mortgage insurance.If you enter a value, mortgage insurance will be terminated when the loan balance equals 80% of the appreciated value of the property.