When you're out shopping for a mortgage for your Jackson home, you'll find that you have two basic choices - to lock your interest rate in for the length of the mortgage or to let it fluctuate along with the market. If the rate you had locked in on your last Arlington real estate wasn't that great and, you may think that a variable rate is the way to go this time. Everyone wants to have that prospect of paying less on their mortgage later on. But there are risks involved with this approach.

This may surprise you, but not every buyer of real estate in Richmond, VA realizes that it's also possible for interest rates to go up instead of down. Not only is this demoralizing, but it can also push your mortgage payments beyond your ability to meet them, which can end in disaster.

Let's take a minute to think about what could happen if the rates go up. The first thing that would happen is that the payments on your unit of French Quarter II Condos - 115 Richmond St. E will start eating up more of your budget. This means less money for entertainment. Less money for clothes. Less money to save for vacations. But as long as your payments don't exceed about 30% of your income you'll probably be able to cope.

Until the rates rise again. Now you can't afford to replace the broken part on your car. You're clipping coupons to afford your groceries, and you're seriously considering selling some of your stuff. But you survive.

Until the rates go up again. And now you're really in trouble. You can't pay the heat, water, power, cable, phone, car, and house bills all in the same month. You have to choose between them, and you're falling behind. At this point you have to choose whether to put your place up among the downtown Toronto homes for sale or to try and stick it out. If you sell, you'll end up in a smaller place. If you stick it out and the rates rise again, you'll lose your home and have nothing to show for all those payments you made.

Of course, there are mortgages with caps that you can get where your payments can't rise above a certain amount. The danger with this is that the rate is still going up and you're still paying it, just not right now. Instead, the extra money will be added to your principal, extending your term and pushing back the date when you can afford your new modern bathroom vanity. If it gets bad enough, the amount you owe might actually be increasing monthly instead of decreasing, even though you're still making your payments.