While it's true the housing market is quieter than it has been in the last several years there is still plenty of activity, especially among savvy buyers. While most of our focus is on commercial and business activities we do get asked to "look over the numbers" for some friends and individual clients. Often they are amazed at what can be done in Excel in a very short period. The attached worksheet was put together in about 15 minutes as I went through the high points and various home buying scenarios with a friend of mine. I left it fairly "rough" so you can get a sense of the rudimentary elements necessary for decision making. While colors, graphs and fonts create a more attractive and sometimes insightful presenation I have found that in most cases a few good numbers and the ability to change things on the fly are more helpful.

Download mortgage_financial_model.xls

Joey Brannon is the founder of Axiom Professional Group, a tax, consulting and accounting firm in Bradenton, Florida. Mr. Brannon is both a CPA and an EA. You can find out more about Axiom by visiting www.axiomcpa.com.