Friendly Refi Reminder
 

If you can, refi your home soon. Im doing mine now and the rates are crazy good. May not be better then the near term for a long long while.

We did ours right at the tail end of 2010 (end of December) for 4.625. I'd do it again but we have to pay more fees upfront or they would get loaded up into the mortgage. Don't really feel like having to pay again just to save 80 bucks a month (or so) at the lower rates, and extend my loan another 1+ years on a new 30...

We just refinanced and cut about 2.5 years off of ours for like $20 more per month.

Dan, you might look to cut your number of years down to 25 if you can get the right rate.

You can often cut the loan 5-10 years with a minimal increase in monthly payments. I've always cut at least 7-10 years off a loan on the two refinances I did on my previous home.

Every time I see the interest rates tick down, I get frustrated. I'm at 6.25%. I bought the house in 2008. Because of housing values decreasing, I owe only a few thousand less than what the house is worth according to an appraisal I had done last summer when I wanted to try to finance.

And no, I'm not in an FHA or Freddie/Fannie program - so the quick refi options out there aren't open to me.

Any thoughts on how I could take advantage of the rates outside of putting tens of thousands towards my principal?

Same boat here. I had bought in 2007 with a conventional (20% down) loan, moved away, rented the home, and now heading back. In that time, my house is now roughly worth half of what it was in 2007. I'm probably $30k upside down on that home.

I might be able to put enough into it to refi at 100% LTV (Loan to Value) but I won't be able to get to 80% anytime real soon.

Can't you repurchase your current credit using another one at a lower rate ?

That's how I did mine about 10 years ago. Was at 5%. Renegged down to 3.25% while paying some penalties for repurchasing the initial credit. Saved me one full year globally.

I'm not aware of a refi that will allow you to do 100% LTV, unless you have an FHA or Freddie/Fannie that has a special program.

Thats my understanding as well.

I think I'm at 6.5 or so on a 30. I'd love to refi to 15 at today's rates and would be fine with throwing some cash at it. But I doubt I have enough to get to 80% at this point. Might take another year or so to get there. Hopefully rates wont be too much higher (if they even go up at all...I suspect they will a bit).

It is crazy. We moved to our current house in 1998 for 30 yrs at 7.25%. Refinanced a few years later at 5.25%. I just did another refi for 15 yrs at 3.00%. My payment went up about $ 90.00/month but knocked about 11 years off the mortgage.

Just looked into quotes at the lower rates being offered and see I can reduce our monthly payment by $220 a month... Ok now I'm listening.

I wish I was ready to move out of NYC.

Keep an eye out. Even if you're upside down, these things move in waves so if a trend starts like HARP2.0 allowing up to 125% LTV to refi, other lenders and even non FRDY FNMA loans may become eligible...

While Im at it, if you havnt addressed home owners insurance in a bunch of years, very likely your rates have ticked up accordingly in the same time and they hope you dont notice because its escrowed. Shop it around and slash your mo pmt by getting more appropriate insurance rates.

My parents just refinanced at something like 3%.... It matters to me because in some roundabout way, I'm buying a bunch of my dad's stock out in the farm at 3% interest now. It's just shuffling money around but the key was getting that nice refinance rate.

yeah, we just refinanced down to 2.99% from 5.50%. Not saving years off the loan but used the opportunity to consolidate some debts from the dojo startup into it that we hope to pay off in the next year when it becomes more stable financially...

FM

Any good mortgage companies out there for IL? My wife and I tried to refi over a year ago, and I couldn't believe the crap that we went through. Basically being lied to and the numbers changing before closing. It was like no one wanted to finance people with scores at 800+. We gave up, but with the rates the way they are we have to try again. Just don't want any bs.

FM - 2.99?
Fixed?
and where?

Flasch186, thanks for the reminder, I had figured it wasn't worth it looking into a refi (when I had already thought about it a month or two ago) but actually contacting a highly rated broker opened my eyes to the fact that at these current rates it really was a good opportunity for my wife and I to refinance again. Next time you find yourself here in SoCal I owe you a beer. :)

Frogman is in Quebec and I'm guessing that's a variable rate or a short term (1-2 year) fixed rate.

Although you can get 3.0 here in SoCal at 15 years if you are lucky.

Quick dumb question. When refinancing, do you have to pay full closing fees again?

I cant touch it in SC, I've tried.
800+
42% LTV
No debt except home so debt to income is skewed but offset by little income these days.

3.875 is the best I can find

you do but if you have equity you can have those rolled into the mortgage and then figure what your break even is...

Weegee I work for Wells Fargo out of St Charles and would be more than happy to help you.

CU are you saying 3.875% on a 30 or 15 year fixed?

Bigsmooth, yes there are closing costs although you can typically pay a little extra in the rate to have the lender cover the closing costs.

bought our house in march, rates have already dropped a good amount. we can save $120 a month for just a few hundred upfront. so we'll be taking advantage.

extends our fixed 30 year mortgage 6 months.

Forgot to update. Actually closed on a refi Monday AM 3% fixed for 30.

Also wouldn't be a terrible idea to check with your banks about a home equity rather than a full mortgage re-fi. Would save a bundle on the closing and rates are in the same ballpark for those that have the equity to do it. Just a caveat: most (all?) will not offer escrow as an option, so taxes and insurance all all yours.

The bank I refinanced back in April had 3% on 15 yr mortgage. We were at 4.5% for 30 just a year prior.

Now it's at 2.7% for 15 and 3.25% for 30. Crazy.

Those in WI we used Anchor Bank. Great to work with. Typically around $1500 closing costs. We were at about 90-95% LTV.