I got a 30 year mortgage in 2001 (Austin, TX), then a couple years later thought better of it and refinanced to 15 years. It was grueling for a few years, but

I got a 30 year mortgage in 2001 (Austin, TX), then a couple years later thought better of it and refinanced to 15 years. It was grueling for a few years, but in the long run you pay far less. It has been nice to have no mortgage payment just in time for the pandemic slowdown. If you _can_ do 15 year, it's great to do so. I did have to buy in the "bad" part of town in order to do it, but in my case that wasn't really that bad, and by the time the house was paid off it had started to gentrify. I could imagine doing this in Detroit or St. Louis and really regretting it, of course. Predicting 15 years out is basically impossible; I got lucky.