A mortgage is a loan that you take out on your home.  Because the majority of people don't have 200,000 dollars you usually put down a percentage of the home, which if it were 20% in this case would be $40,000 dollars.  Then you make payments to the bank over a fixed number of years.  You have to take into account the interest that you will have to pay over 30 years.  So the faster you pay off the house the more you save on interest payments.

There are FRM's and ARM's when it comes to loans.  An FRM is a fixed rate mortage which means that the payments on interest will be the same on the first month and the last month of the loan.  An ARM is an adjustable rate mortgage which means that the interest rate will change throughout the life of the loan.  Utah mortgage rates will differ from other states and even from county to county.