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See those low low low interest rates? Anyone doing a refi?

post #1 of 36
8/28/10 at 12:31am
Thread Starter 
We are. With the low rates, we found out we can do a 20 yr instead of our 30 yr loan and the payment is $10 per month, but it will shed 8 yrs off our current loan.

Anyone else checking out a refi or buying to take advantage right now?

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post #2 of 36
8/28/10 at 9:43am
Yep. Did it earlier this summer -- dropped a full point, eliminated our PMI, and went from 30 to 20 year loan. And the best part -- our mortgage payment went down a bit. I calculated the end payments and even after paying refi fees, we are much better off with this loan.

And this is our 'forever' home, so we expect to pay off this mortgage.
post #3 of 36
8/28/10 at 9:48am
We did one about a year ago. DH works pretty closely with the loan officer through his work and she called him up with a great offer. We were able to go to a 15 year and it feels incredible! I can just feel that extra money in my pockets! Okay, not really.

I am just so thankful I have a very money-wise spouse. If it were up to me, I couldn't do half as much and would probably be in the hole majorly.
post #4 of 36
8/28/10 at 12:02pm
We renewed our mortage early (in Canada you have a 5-year term on a 25 year old mortgage) and ended up shaving about 6 years off the length of it so we'll be paid off in about 11 years. Woo hoo.
post #5 of 36
8/28/10 at 12:25pm
Yup. Our monthly payment is going down by $400 with only 5 months to break even on the closing costs. God willing, we'll have this place paid off in 5 years.
post #6 of 36
8/28/10 at 12:57pm
We closed 2 days ago. Our monthly payment went down 25% for a shorter term. It should save us about $150k in the end. And we had good terms to start with.
post #7 of 36
8/28/10 at 1:48pm
We re-fied about six months ago.
post #8 of 36
8/28/10 at 6:23pm
We just closed on our new house in april, and we got a nice rate of 4.875, so it wouldn't be worth it for us right now. I'd love to see them drop even more so it would make sense though!
post #9 of 36
8/28/10 at 7:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by nadia105 View Post
We just closed on our new house in april, and we got a nice rate of 4.875, so it wouldn't be worth it for us right now. I'd love to see them drop even more so it would make sense though!
That's what our rate is, and I've been watching rates closely to see if they go down even more. Right now I've been seeing rates half a point lower than that, but I think it needs to be down more than that to make any sense.
post #10 of 36
8/28/10 at 8:52pm
It looks like around here the current rates are about 1/2 a point lower than our rate too. And we only closed ~4 years ago so I hate to do all that again so soon. I really wish we could take advantage of lower rates though. :-/ Our mortgage is high (high COL & low incomes around here it seems.)
post #11 of 36
8/28/10 at 11:01pm
I'm impressed that you guys are having such nice luck refinancing! Our housing values have dropped dramatically since we bought 5 years ago. Our house is worth about 33% less than what we paid (and we haven't paid that much of hte mortgage), so it makes it hard to refinance.
post #12 of 36
8/28/10 at 11:38pm
We bought in November at 5.5% and just signed the refi for 4.875% on Wednesday. Our broker called us an d offered the refi with no fees and they would even pay our prepaids. Can't beat that.
post #13 of 36
8/29/10 at 12:57am
How did you guys go about refi-ing? Just call your current mortgage company?
post #14 of 36
8/29/10 at 12:35pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BetsyS View Post
I'm impressed that you guys are having such nice luck refinancing! Our housing values have dropped dramatically since we bought 5 years ago. Our house is worth about 33% less than what we paid (and we haven't paid that much of hte mortgage), so it makes it hard to refinance.
Call your current mortgage company and see what happens. We went back to the same one we already had, so they didn't require an appraisal.
post #15 of 36
8/29/10 at 12:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BetsyS View Post
I'm impressed that you guys are having such nice luck refinancing! Our housing values have dropped dramatically since we bought 5 years ago. Our house is worth about 33% less than what we paid (and we haven't paid that much of hte mortgage), so it makes it hard to refinance.
Our appraisal was very tight. We had an appraisal done a year ago and the house valued too low to refinance. We were lucky and a house sold up the street from us and we jumped at the chance to refi while we had a current comp. But it was squeaky tight.

Also, our good credit helped things move along smoothly. Refinancing is tough right now unless your credit is stellar.
post #16 of 36
8/29/10 at 1:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by New Mama View Post
That's what our rate is, and I've been watching rates closely to see if they go down even more. Right now I've been seeing rates half a point lower than that, but I think it needs to be down more than that to make any sense.
Are you looking at 30-yr or 15-yr rates? We’re locking in at 3.8% with our credit union for a 15-yr loan.

Quote:
Originally Posted by rose angel View Post
How did you guys go about refi-ing? Just call your current mortgage company?
Start there, but get bids from other credit unions, mortgage companies, or banks. In theory, your current lender should waive some of the closing costs for you, which would make it a better deal to stick with them. In theory. Our lender, meanwhile, is charging TWICE in closing costs as our credit union…and they’re not willing to negotiate their many junk fees. It’s no mystery who we’re going with. So definitely go comparison shopping.
post #17 of 36
8/29/10 at 3:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by seeing_stars View Post
We bought in November at 5.5% and just signed the refi for 4.875% on Wednesday. Our broker called us and offered the refi with no fees and they would even pay our prepaids. Can't beat that.
heh, same here, sort of. bought in the 90's, but refi'd (no cost) in nov at 5.25%, and just signed weds (again no cost) at 4.875%, for a 30y fixed rate.

i think rates will sit low for a while. any raise will totally tank the "recovery," so the fed will continue to support low rates, probably even inch them lower. although they're running out of room for that; can't get much lower than 4% unless they start making the prime rate negative!
post #18 of 36
8/29/10 at 6:33pm
We were lucky enough to get a the best rate we've seen in our adult lives when we closed last year. Still nothing better has been available.
post #19 of 36
8/30/10 at 12:59am
We did a refi earlier this summer. Went from 6% on a 30 yr fixed to 4.125% on a 15 yr fixed and our payment amount didn't change [since we had been paying more than the min on the 30 yr; and we're still paying more than the min on the 15 yr, but not as much more]. We originally purchased 10 years ago this month @ 8% for a 30 yr fixed. Our long-term plan is to have the mortgage paid off by the time our DD goes off to college (theoretically, since she may choose otherwise) in 9 years, which will be 19 years total. That, of course, presumes we'll stay in this home....which is a loose plan, but not a set-in-stone plan.
post #20 of 36
8/30/10 at 2:36pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by rose angel View Post
How did you guys go about refi-ing? Just call your current mortgage company?
We have done that in the past, just called the current at the time mortgage co that held our loan. When we bought our current home, we went thru a broker that my realtor recommended. She did a great job. A year later, we refinanced thru Chase (who is our bank and also held the mortgage) and it was a complete nightmare. And this was someone who was highly recommended. I would NEVER recommend Chase.

So they hold our current one and the broker from 3 years ago is doing the current refi we are doing. With our luck, Chase will pick up this loan LOL.
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Mothering › Mothering Discussion Forums › Natural Family Living › The Mindful Home › Frugality & Finances › See those low low low interest rates? Anyone doing a refi?