Pay discount points before you buy. The money you pay up front reduces your interest rate and lowers your monthly payment. But if you know you won't be in the house for the long haul, you might want to skip the points and shell out a little more cash each month.
Points are tax deductible.
Points cost one percent of the loan amount-payable at closing. So, if your mortgage is a hundred thousand dollars, you'll spend a thousand dollars a point. To reduce your interest rate from seven and a quarter percent to seven percent, you'll spend two-thousand dollars on two points. Over the life of your loan, you'll save more than six thousand dollars-triple your investment in points. Pay four points and you save 12-thousand dollars over 30 years.