15-Year vs. 30-Year Mortgage: Which Saves You More Money? (2026 DMV Guide)

Every article on the 15 year vs 30 year mortgage question ends the same way: the 15 year saves more, obviously, look at the interest column. That is true and it is not useful, because it answers a question you were not really asking. You already suspected the shorter loan costs less in total. What you actually want to know is whether committing to the higher payment is a good idea for your situation, and what happens if you are wrong.

This guide gives you the real numbers first, then the part most articles skip: the strategy that gets you most of the 15 year benefit without the risk, and the specific situations where each loan is clearly the right answer.

15 vs 30 year mortgage: what each loan actually costs right now

Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey for the week ending August 27, 2026 put the 30 year fixed at 6.66% and the 15 year fixed at 5.98%. That is a spread of 0.68 of a percentage point. Here is what that produces across loan sizes common in this region.

Principal and interest only, calculated on standard amortisation at the rates above. Taxes, insurance and any mortgage insurance are additional and are the same under either term. Rate source: Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, week ending August 27, 2026.

Two things stand out. The interest saved is enormous, roughly the price of a house in much of the country. And the monthly gap is also enormous, and it is a gap you are contractually obliged to cover every month for fifteen years.

The rate spread matters less than people think

The 0.68 point discount is real, and it is the part lenders advertise. But run the comparison again with the rates set equal and the picture barely changes. Most of the saving comes from the term, not the rate. You are simply borrowing the money for half as long.

That matters because buyers often shop hard for an extra eighth of a point on a 15 year and treat it as the deciding factor. It is not. The deciding factor is whether you can carry the payment through a bad year without touching your emergency fund.

The part the interest column misses: equity

Interest saved is a number you collect over thirty years. Equity is a number you can use much sooner, and the 15 year builds it at a completely different speed.

Remaining principal balances calculated at 6.66% for the 30 year and 5.98% for the 15 year, assuming scheduled payments only and no extra principal.

Five years in, the 30 year borrower has paid down about $37,000 of a $600,000 loan. The 15 year borrower has paid down about $144,000. That gap is why the shorter loan appeals to people who plan to move up, or who want the option of a home equity line, or who simply do not like owing money.

It is also worth knowing if you started with less than 20% down. Reaching 20% equity is what lets you request removal of conventional mortgage insurance, and the 15 year gets there far sooner. We cover the mechanics in our guide on removing PMI.

Where your first payment actually goes

Amortisation is the part of a mortgage that surprises people most, and it explains why the two loans behave so differently long before the final year.

On a $600,000 loan, here is how the very first payment splits.

Interest for the first month is the loan balance multiplied by the annual rate divided by twelve. Principal is whatever is left of the payment.

Read that bottom row again. The 15 year payment is $1,201 higher, but $1,541 more of it goes to principal. You are not paying $1,201 extra for the privilege of a shorter term. You are moving more than that amount out of interest and into your own equity, and the lower rate is doing part of the work.

This is also why the 30 year feels like it is barely moving in the early years. In month one you are paying down $526 of a $600,000 debt. It takes years before the split gets interesting.

The strategy nobody puts in the headline

There is a third option that gets overlooked, and for a lot of buyers it is the right one. Take the 30 year conventional loan, then pay it like a 15 year voluntarily.

On the $600,000 example that means taking the 30 year payment of $3,856 and sending $5,057 instead. You pay the loan down on roughly the same schedule and capture most of the interest saving. The difference is what happens in a month when you cannot. With the 30 year note, paying $3,856 is simply making your payment. With a 15 year note, $3,856 is a missed payment.

If you go this route, tell your servicer the extra is to be applied to principal, and check your statement the following month to confirm it was. Money applied as a prepayment of next month’s bill does nothing for you.

Should you get a 15 or 30 year mortgage? When the 15 year is clearly right

Some situations point firmly at the shorter loan.

• You are close to retirement. Carrying a mortgage payment into a fixed income is the thing people most often say they wish they had avoided. A 15 year taken at 50 is paid off at 65.
• Your income is stable and well above the payment. If the 15 year payment is a comfortable share of your take home rather than a stretch, the higher payment is not really a risk.
• You are refinancing and already several years in. Refinancing a loan you have paid for six years into a fresh 30 year restarts the clock. A 15 year keeps your payoff date roughly where it was.
• You have no higher priority use for the money. Emergency fund funded, retirement contributions maxed, no high interest debt. At that point the guaranteed return from retiring a 6.66% mortgage is genuinely attractive.

When the 30 year is clearly right

• The 15 year payment only works if nothing goes wrong. This is the most common case and the most important one. A mortgage should survive a bad year.
• You are buying at the top of your range. In this region that is most first time buyers. The 30 year is often the difference between qualifying and not.
• You have not finished your emergency fund. Home equity is not liquid. Locking money into the house while carrying no cash cushion is how people end up borrowing against the house at a worse rate.
• You get an employer retirement match you are not fully capturing. An unmatched match is an immediate guaranteed return that a 6.66% mortgage cannot beat.
• You expect to move within about seven years. Most of the 15 year advantage arrives later. If you sell early you paid the higher payment for a benefit you never collected.

Why this decision is heavier in the DMV

The monthly gap between the two loans scales with the loan size, and loans here are large. It is a decision we work through with almost every buyer as mortgage lenders in Virginia, Maryland, DC and West Virginia. On a $400,000 loan the 15 year costs $801 more a month. On a $700,000 loan it costs $1,401 more. A buyer in a lower cost market is deciding whether to find a few hundred dollars. A buyer in Loudoun or Fairfax is often deciding whether to find well over a thousand.

That has a practical consequence. Because the 15 year payment is so much larger here, it eats into the debt to income ratio that determines how much house you can buy at all. Two buyers with identical income can afford noticeably different homes depending on the term they choose. If you are still working out your budget, start with how much house you can afford in Northern Virginia before you settle on a term.

The other regional wrinkle is property tax. Your term choice does not change your tax bill, but in a high tax jurisdiction the tax and insurance portion is already a large fixed cost sitting on top of whichever principal and interest figure you choose. See our breakdown of Northern Virginia property tax rates by county.

What the term does to how much house you can buy

This is the consequence buyers discover late, usually after they have already fallen for a house. Because lenders qualify you on the payment, choosing a 15 year directly reduces the price you can be approved for. Run both terms on our affordability calculator before you fall for the house.

Take a household with $200,000 of gross annual income. Using the 28% housing guideline, that allows roughly $4,667 a month for the full housing payment. Set aside $900 of that for property tax and insurance, which is realistic in much of Northern Virginia, and $3,767 is left for principal and interest.

Illustration only, using the 28% housing guideline and an assumed $900 a month for taxes and insurance. Actual approval depends on your other debts, credit, reserves and the lender’s underwriting, and is commonly higher than this guideline.

Roughly $139,000 of buying power, gone, for the same income. In a market where the median Loudoun listing was $799,945 in July 2026, that difference decides which neighborhoods are open to you.

That is not an argument against the 15 year. It is an argument for deciding the term before you start looking, because switching to a 15 year late in the process can put your own accepted offer out of reach.

Questions people actually ask

Can I switch from a 30 year to a 15 year later?

Only by refinancing, which means a new loan, new closing costs and whatever rate is available at that time. You cannot convert the note you already have. This is why paying a 30 year aggressively is often the more flexible path: it gets you a similar result without needing the market to cooperate later.

Is a 20 year mortgage a good middle ground?

It can be. Twenty year fixed loans exist and price between the two. They are not quoted in the weekly Freddie Mac survey, so ask for the specific rate rather than assuming it sits exactly halfway. Fewer lenders promote them, which means fewer buyers ever see the option.

Does the 15 year always have a lower rate?

It is consistently lower, because the lender is taking on less duration risk. The size of the discount moves. In the week ending August 27, 2026 it was 0.68 of a point. Ask for both quotes on the same day from the same lender, since comparing a 15 year quote from one lender against a 30 year quote from another tells you very little.

Will I qualify for the same purchase price on a 15 year?

Usually not. The higher payment raises your debt to income ratio, which is the main constraint most buyers hit. It is common to qualify for meaningfully less house on a 15 year, which is one reason the 30 year dominates among first time buyers in expensive markets.

What if rates fall after I take the 30 year?

Then you refinance, and at that point a 15 year may become affordable at a payment close to your original 30 year. That is a real path and it is another argument for not overcommitting today.

Do biweekly payments do the same thing as a 15 year?

Not nearly. Paying half your mortgage every two weeks produces 26 half payments a year, which equals 13 monthly payments instead of 12. On the $600,000 example that is about $321 a month of extra principal, and it pays the loan off in roughly 24 years rather than 30. Useful, but a long way from 15. Some servicers also charge to set biweekly payments up, and you can achieve exactly the same result for free by sending one extra principal payment a year.

Does the mortgage interest deduction change the maths?

It can, and it favors the 30 year slightly because there is more interest to deduct, but it is a weaker factor than most people assume. You only benefit to the extent your itemised deductions exceed the standard deduction, and there are limits on both deductible mortgage debt and state and local taxes. Ask a tax professional what your actual position is rather than assuming a benefit.

If I take the 15 year, can I lower the payment later without refinancing?

Sometimes, through a recast. If you make a large lump sum payment toward principal, some lenders will re-amortise the loan over the remaining term, which lowers the payment without changing your rate or starting a new loan. Not every loan is eligible and there is usually a fee. See how recasting works.

Should I get a 15 or 30 year mortgage?

Take the 15 year only if the higher payment still leaves you funding retirement, holding a real emergency reserve and buying the house you actually want. If it does not, the 30 year is the better answer, because you can send extra principal whenever you choose and you cannot un-commit to a 15 year payment. In the DMV the decision is heavier than it is nationally, because the price level means the payment gap between the two terms on the same house is over a thousand dollars a month.