Amortization, referred to as “am” by mortgage professionals, refers to the process of paying off a mortgage in regular payments composed of both interest and principal.
The “amortization period” is the time over which the mortgage is to be completely repaid, assuming equal payments.
A mortgage with a 25-year amortization period, for example, means that it would take 25 years to reduce the balance to zero. That assumes all regular payments were made on time and the terms (payment and interest rate) remained the same.
An “amortization schedule” is a table showing the amounts of principal and interest in each mortgage payment, as well as the remaining principal balance after each payment is made.