---
title: "Housing and mortgage glossary"
url: https://mybrbmortgage.com/glossary/
description: "Plain-language definitions of the housing, transaction and mortgage terms used across this site."
published: 2026-08-17
updated: 2026-08-17
---

# Housing and mortgage glossary

Published 2026-08-17

[My BRB Mortgage](https://mybrbmortgage.com/) › Glossary

These are the terms used elsewhere on the site, defined in ordinary language rather than in the wording of any particular contract. Legal meanings and thresholds differ by jurisdiction; where a definition matters to a decision, the governing document is the one that counts.

## How the terms fit together

Most of the vocabulary belongs to one of three families. The first describes the market: stock, flow, turnover, comparables, months of supply, time on market. The second describes the transaction: offer, condition, appraisal, title, lien, easement, closing costs. The third describes the money: principal, interest, amortisation, term, loan-to-value, escrow, points.

Confusion usually comes from words that belong to two families at once. An appraisal is a market exercise used as a lending control; escrow means one thing during a sale and another every month afterwards; equity is both an accounting quantity and, in conversation, a synonym for the deposit.

## The list

Definitions are alphabetical. Each one is written to stand alone, so a reader arriving from one of the explainers does not need to read the rest.

**Amortisation**: The scheduled repayment of a debt through level payments that cover interest first and reduce the balance by the remainder, reaching zero at the end of the term.

**Appraisal or valuation**: A professional opinion of a property's value, usually obtained by a lender to check that the security is adequate for the sum being lent.

**Chain**: A sequence of transactions where each depends on another completing, typically because sellers are also buying.

**Closing costs**: The charges payable when a sale completes, including lender fees, legal work, recording charges, insurance paid in advance and sums placed into escrow.

**Comparable**: A recently sold property similar enough to the subject property to be used, with adjustments, as evidence of value.

**Contingency or condition**: A term in a sale agreement allowing a party to withdraw if a stated event does not occur, such as satisfactory finance, inspection or title.

**Covenant**: A restriction recorded against a parcel limiting what may be built on it or done with it, binding on later owners.

**Easement**: A right for someone else to use part of a parcel for a defined purpose, such as access, drainage or utilities.

**Equity**: The difference between what a property is worth and what is owed against it.

**Escrow**: Money held by a third party on behalf of others, either pending completion of a sale or, monthly, to meet taxes and insurance as they fall due.

**Fixed and adjustable rate**: A fixed rate is held for a stated period; an adjustable rate moves with a reference rate after an initial period, usually within stated caps.

**Lien**: A recorded claim against a property securing a debt, which normally must be cleared before clear title can pass.

**Loan-to-value**: The loan expressed as a percentage of the property's value; it commonly determines both the rate offered and whether mortgage insurance is required.

**Months of supply**: Listings divided by the current rate of sales, used as a rough measure of whether a local market favours buyers or sellers.

**Mortgage insurance**: Insurance protecting the lender against loss on a high loan-to-value loan, paid for by the borrower.

**Plat**: The recorded map dividing land into parcels, showing boundaries, streets and easements.

**Points**: A fee paid at closing to reduce the interest rate, each point being one percent of the loan amount.

**Principal**: The amount borrowed, and thereafter the balance still owed, on which interest is charged.

**Refinancing**: Replacing an existing loan with a new one, usually to change the rate, the term, or to draw on equity.

**Setback**: The minimum distance a building must stand from a property line, fixed by regulation.

**Stock and flow**: The stock is all the dwellings in a place; the flow is the small share of them offered for sale at any moment. Prices are set by the flow.

**Term**: The period over which a loan is scheduled to be repaid.

**Time on market**: How long a property has been listed; it behaves as a signal in itself, because later viewers read elapsed time as evidence.

**Title**: The legal ownership of a property, together with everything recorded as affecting it.

**Turnover**: The proportion of the housing stock that changes hands in a year.

**Underwriting**: The lender's verification of a borrower's circumstances and of the property offered as security.

**Zoning**: Public regulation of what may be built on a parcel and what it may be used for.