Americans have built an addition onto the dream of homeownership. Due to economic uncertainties, more people now crave ownership of their property "free and clear" of mortgage debt. Few have the cash to pay off a home loan in one lump sum. But many are attempting to make extra payments to principal to shorten the term of their mortgage.

"People have a growing aversion to debt. So there's a trend toward wiping out mortgage debt as quickly as possible," says Bruce Hahn, president of the American Homeowners Foundation, a consumer education group (www.americanhomeowners.org).

There's more than one way to knock off mortgage debt before the term of a loan ends. Those who receive a windfall -- perhaps through an inheritance -- can sometimes pay off the full mortgage all at once. But most pre-payers simply make extra payments each month. That way they could cut the payoff time on their mortgage from, say 30 years to 15.

Consumer advocates say many families can't afford the extra monthly cost of pre-paying mortgage principal. But even those who could afford to cut years off their term may not choose to do so -- assuming an analysis of their financial situation convinces them they could make better use of their discretionary cash.

As Hahn says, the pros and cons of mortgage prepayment depend on the circumstances for the homeowners involved. Considerations include age, income, expenses, job stability, how long the owners plan to live in their home and their investment philosophy.

Here are a few tips for homeowners thinking about prepayment:

-- Take all the pros into account.

Besides the savings you can enjoy from reduced interest charges, one obvious benefit of paying off a mortgage early is that your living expenses will decrease once your home is paid off. That means you'll free up funds to use for other, perhaps more fun purposes.

Prepayment often makes the most sense for homeowners with a mortgage rate well above the prevailing market rate, though another option for such owners would be to refinance. But even those with a low current rate could be justified in pre-paying their home loan -- assuming they recently took out the mortgage.

"The way a mortgage works, interest charges are front-loaded. So you get a lot more savings when you start prepaying early," Hahn says.

And consumer advocates also see other advantages to prepayment.

"Full ownership of your house gives you a tangible asset with a bundle of values. You can live in the house, borrow against it, sell it or rent it out," says Barry Zigas, director of housing policy for the Consumer Federation of America, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group (www.consumerfed.org).

He says pre-paying a mortgage can make particular sense to people heading toward retirement who expect to stay in their home indefinitely.

"In retirement, your income declines and your tax advantages from mortgage interest start to diminish," Zigas says.

Does it make sense from an investment standpoint to prepay your home loan? Most homeowners whose properties have lost value in recent years are skeptical. But Zigas says that in the near future a modest level of appreciation is possible.

"We can't expect double-digit inflation in home prices. But there is likely to be some level of appreciation in property values over time -- especially in strong neighborhoods where the demographics are positive," he says.

-- Don't overlook the negatives.

Besides the advantages of mortgage prepayment, Hahn urges homeowners to take note of the downsides.

"A house is a less liquid asset than money in a savings account. You don't want to sink all of your funds into the house. You might need liquid savings in case of a catastrophic medical expense or some other crisis," he says.

While prepayment may make sense for older couples, Hahn says many families with young children have a greater need for cash to keep up with current expenses, such as day care and educational costs. Thus it may make sense to keep mortgage payments as low as possible in such cases.

-- Carefully calculate how much extra it would cost for pre-payment.

Some homeowners mistakenly believe they're not allowed to accelerate payments to principal on their mortgage. But as Hahn notes, a combination of state and federal regulations now prohibit lenders from imposing mortgage prepayment penalties in nearly all cases.

How much would it cost you to prepay? That depends on how quickly you wish to wipe out your mortgage debt. Obviously it would cost less per month to pay off a 30-year mortgage in 20 years than in 10 years. The other variables include the size of your outstanding debt and the interest rate on the loan.

One good way to find out how much your prepayment plans would cost on a monthly basis is to use one of the free mortgage calculators now available online. Two of the websites that offer these are: www.hsh.com and www.bankrate.com.

Any homeowner can stop voluntary prepayments to principal at any time. Even so, Hahn strongly suggests that those considering prepayment first consult a financial adviser.

"Your accountant is in a good position to evaluate whether prepayment makes sense in your case once all the factors -- including your tax situation -- are taken into account," he says.

(To contact Ellen James Martin, email her at ellenjamesmartin@gmail.com.)

A couple in their mid-50s with grown children is eager to sell their 3,800-square-foot contemporary house in favor of an easy-to-maintain apartment nearby. If they could free their equity, they'd have funds to travel the world and pursue their passion for jazz.

But after six months and no offers, they're dispirited. They've already cut their price twice and are now offering their place -- located in a popular suburban neighborhood -- for less than similar homes nearby.

The agent is urging them to remove furnishings that reflect their quirky tastes, like the futuristic neon orange sofas in their living room. She wants them to take down art reflecting their favorite pastimes, like a couple dozen posters of jazz artists. And she advises them to pack away the many family photos they have on display.

Sid Davis, a veteran real estate broker and author of "A Survival Guide to Selling a Home," has never seen the jazz lovers' property. But he strongly agrees it's smart for home sellers to remove any items that reflect their personal lives and tastes.

"People buy houses on emotion, not logic or reason. When you have all that personal stuff around, like all your kids' pictures, they can't get beyond that to visualize their own family living there," Davis says.

Davis insists that "less is more" when it comes to personal items.

"When I take prospects through an empty room they usually start placing their own furniture immediately. It's amazing how quickly they'll bond with a house that's free of other people's things," he says.

Davis stresses that superficial steps -- like changes to a home's staging -- are no substitute for adjusting the price of a property that's sat unsold for a long time. But assuming the property is fairly priced and in good repair, he says a limited and relatively inexpensive number of surface changes can have a dramatic impact.

Here are a few pointers for home sellers:

-- Add style to your home with classy moldings.

It's no surprise that in their model homes, builders make extensive use of decorative interior trim -- including crown moldings, chair railings and wainscoting. That's because these decorative touches give a home a finished quality that exceeds the cost of the work, says Dorcas Helfant, a real estate broker and former president of the National Association of Realtors (www.realtor.org).

"Some people who are truly handy can install their own moldings. But most sellers are better off hiring a trim carpenter. For just a few thousand dollars you can get a tremendous amount of woodwork done by a pro," Helfant says.

Davis is especially favorable to moldings painted a glossy white to contrast with walls in a light champagne or beige color.

-- Change the colors of your interior and exterior paint.

By the time their property has gone on the market, many sellers have painted a room or two.

But to maximize the showing appeal of a property, more extensive painting could be a key to enhancing salability. For example, Davis strongly recommends that all sellers repaint their front door, the most visible surface of any property. And make sure you repaint any other interior areas where wear is apparent.

As a finishing touch to add luster, Davis suggests you replace the hardware on your kitchen and bathroom cabinets, a move that should cost no more than $50 to $100.

-- Treat your place to a thorough professional cleaning.

Often when Davis tells clients to ensure their place is very clean, they respond with baffled looks.

"People think clean means washing dishes, making beds and doing a bit of dusting. But I'm talking about the kind of clean you get when you check into a high-end hotel. Anyone who is selling a home can't afford to miss a bit of dirt," Davis says.

Though books such as "Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook" can give you direction, Davis says the best way for most sellers to achieve a high level of cleanliness is to hire a professional cleaning company.

"Once you've found the right cleaning company, give them a checklist of everything you need done. Among other projects, this should include a deep scouring of bathroom and kitchen tile to remove mildew and a painstaking cleaning of all the chandeliers and light fixtures. Expect the entire job to cost in the range of $200 to $400, depending on the size of your home," Davis says.

-- Make your windows sparkle again.

The odds are your cleaning crew won't take on one piece of work vital to your home's appearance: a thorough cleaning of your windows from the exterior. But Helfant says you can't afford to skip this. Nor should you avoid cleaning all your screens, which naturally gather dust and grime.

"Screens look a great deal better when they're clean, as do windows, which sparkle in the sunlight. Remember that the first visuals buyers see when they drive up are very important," she says.

Of course, home sellers can attempt to clean their own windows. But as Davis notes, the professionals have the equipment and skills to do a superior job, especially on hard-to-reach windows. The cost for professional window cleaning? Usually less than $200, though this will depend on the size of your property and the cost of labor in your area.

-- Do the surface upgrades quickly to keep your home on the market.

Sometimes the owners of an unsold home become so disheartened that they simply remove their property from the market until they can rework the place. Davis understands the desire to take a breather from the stress of selling. But rather than doing such a timeout, he urges sellers to schedule improvements on weekdays, when few buyers are likely to come by.

"Anytime you take your house off the market you lose potential buyers." If you do your touch-ups during the week, "you could be happily surprised to find that buyer interest has picked up by the next weekend after all the work is done," he says.

(To contact Ellen James Martin, email her at ellenjamesmartin@gmail.com.)

Since 1971, Fred Meyer has lived happily in an olive- green Victorian near the Harvard University campus. Though he's 73, he relishes scaling the stairs of the three-story property. Why? Because he insists that doing so keeps him fit.

"Climbing the stairs is part of my daily routine, so it doesn’t feel like exercise. It’s a good habit and a way of staying fit without thinking about it -- and one my doctor endorses," says Meyer, a veteran real estate broker.

Meyer says few of his older home-buying clients deliberately shop for a place with stairs to follow his example. But he says those open to purchasing a vertical property have more housing options available to them in retirement.

Of course, many retirement communities designed for those older than 55 offer buyers the choice of living in an apartment on one level, notes James W. Hughes, a Rutgers University professor who tracks housing trends throughout the nation.

In addition, Hughes says some senior communities offer purchasers the option of choosing a small, detached house on one level -- such as a miniature "villa." But he says seniors who don’t wish to live in an age-restricted community often have relatively few horizontal options open to them -- especially if they wish to live in a new or nearly new place.

Meyer says many retirees have mixed feelings when deciding between horizontal and vertical living. Although they don’t prefer stairs, he notes that many traditionalists enjoy the privacy of a floor plan with bedrooms on the second floor -- especially when company is over. Location is also a factor, he says. In remote or exotic locales where housing is scarce, or in vibrant urban areas where land is expensive, vertical housing may be the only game in town.

Here are a few pointers for those who are choosing between vertical and horizontal housing for their senior years:

-- Look at the big picture of your physical health.

David Geier, an orthopedic surgeon in South Carolina, says many of his patients older than age 55 have a significant level of osteoarthritis in their knees. He says those experiencing a great deal of knee pain, limited range of motion and balance issues are not ideal candidates to live in a multi-story house. Even after they’ve recovered from total knee replacement surgery, he says some patients are ill-suited to vertical living.

However, older homebuyers who are in generally good condition can benefit from the exertion required to use stairs on a regular basis, says Lisa Morrone, a physical therapist and author in New York.

"For people in shape, using stairs is a good weight- bearing exercise," Morrone says.

-- Lose weight before deciding whether to move to a vertical home.

"At least two-thirds of people in the U.S. are overweight or obese. And excess weight -- like a sedentary lifestyle -- puts a heavy burden on the knees," Morrone says.

Because extra weight is such a major physical problem, she urges heavy people to shed pounds before committing to the purchase of a home that requires stair-climbing.

Samuel Robinson, an orthopedic surgeon in Virginia, says patients with significant knee pain due to osteoarthritis often find considerable relief after dropping weight.

"Even losing five or 10 pounds can make a tremendous difference," he says.

-- Use regular exercise to increase your housing options.

Robert Wayner, a physical therapist in Oregon, says it’s important for older people seeking to live in a vertical house to strengthen their leg muscles -- especially their quadriceps, or "quads."

Besides strengthening their quads, he says seniors seeking to live in a home with stairs should be sure to incorporate into their routine balance exercises, which can help them guard against falling.

Robinson -- the orthopedic surgeon from Virginia --encourages those who include running in their aerobic exercise workouts to also mix in other activities that involve less stress to the knees.

"Instead of running every day, cross-train on alternate days by substituting a swim or a bike ride," he says.

-- Wear high-quality shoes to protect your knees and hips.

"Good footwear is critical for everyone, whether or not you have osteoarthritis," Robinson says. "It’s especially important for those who do weight-bearing exercises, like running, to wear good-fitting sneakers."

Also, he says those with flat feet are well advised to consider using custom orthotic insoles that provide extra arch support and help prevent injury and pain.

-- Hedge your bets on retirement housing if you’re uncertain.

Though a one-level condo is the preferred choice for many retirees because of its low upkeep demands, others hope they can live indefinitely in a traditional house with stairs and a yard where they can garden. And they’d like the option of staying put if, one day, they can no longer handle the stairs.

In such cases, Geier, the South Carolina surgeon, recommends that retirees choose a house with a full bedroom and bath on the first floor that they could use if they become disabled.

"Selecting a house with a first-floor master suite is a reasonable option to consider," he says.

(To contact Ellen James Martin, email her at ellenjamesmartin@gmail.com.)