2 Answers

     A mortgage is a loan on a house, most often done by banks for home buyers, and most often for 30 years.  You make 360 (12 months x 30 years) payments, which include principal, interest, insurance, and taxes.  So when you're buying a house, it's very important to figure in the insurance and taxes, because they could possibly cause your payment to double, depending on where you live. 

     As for the principal and interest, the interest is almost totally paid up front, and the principal doesn't start getting paid off until the end of the loan.  The banks have rigged it this way because statistics show that on average, people move every 7 years.  So then when they get a new house, the whole thing starts all over again.  They end up with barely any equity in the house unless home prices have increased. So nobody can ever get their house paid off. 

      If you have cash, (which most young people don't) don't get a mortgage.  Don't listen to anybody who tells you it's a tax advantage because you can deduct the interest, because it won't do you any good unless you have enough deductions to itemize (and the standard deduction has been raised so high that most people won't have enough deductions to exceed this), and whatever you do deduct, you're only saving the percentage of interest of whatever tax bracket you're in (if you're in a 15% tax bracket and you deduct $15,000 in interest, then you're only saving $2250).

     Long story short, mortgages are a rip-off by the banks, but on the other hand, they're the only way that most people can afford to buy a house

It's kind'a like rent...kind'a.  'Cept the landlord ( that's the boss ) is the banker. ( the guy wearin' the suit )