A friend who knows you have studied amortization asks your help to find the interest portion of their house payments for tax purposes (assuming they itemize). The monthly payments are $2,107.02 on a 30 year loan with a 5 percent interest rate.

a)What was the total amount of interest paid during year 2?

b)At what point in time was/will the loan balance be reduced to 50 percent of the original loan amount?