The fixed rate mortgage is the most common type of mortgage loan and is characterized by monthly payments for interest and principal that do not change. While property taxes and homeowners' insurance may go up, your monthly payments will not. Fixed rate mortgages are available for 10, 15, 20 and 30 years, and "biweekly" fixed rate mortgages shorten the loan by requiring half the monthly payment every two weeks. The borrower makes 26 payments a year since there are 52 weeks in a year.

There are two distinct features of fixed rate mortgages: 1) the interest remains the same for the life of the loan and 2) the payments remain the same for the life of the loan and are structured to repay the loan at the end of the loan's term. During the early amortization period, a large percentage of your monthly payments is used to pay the interest, and as the loan is paid down, more of the monthly payment is applied to the principal. For most borrowers, a 30-year fixed rate mortgage will take 22.5 years of level payments to pay half of the original loan amount.