Have any of you refinanced your mortgage lately?

I am not sure if you can call 250K in Texas can buy you a great house. Location matters. I'd compare 400k to what is equivalent of a great house in Planos. You can go to Houston if you want but you won't get those higher paying jobs there vs a real tech hub.

The way Texas deal with the electrical grid the semiconductor industry will leave soon, and the tech hub may leave too. Infrastructure matters. NXP lost 100M because of the power issue.
 
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I can see both sides of the argument here...yes cost of living has gone up disproportionately to salaries, but I'm 30 and can attest to the fact that my generation has entitlement issues, and generally speaking are not good with money.
There are equivalent of these people in every generations, boomers included. The thing I do see is the generation today was sold a "promise" that was unrealistic and the older generation also has unrealistic expectation of the younger generations.

For example: go to college doesn't guarantee you a good job, hard work doesn't guarantee you a good income, having debt issues may not be caused by bad work ethics, and definitely buying an iPhone doesn't mean you are bad with money management.

One thing for sure is nobody needs a RWD V8 in 2021, no matter which generation you are from. Going to college is not enough, you need to pick your major wisely.
 
"Silicon Valley" is definitely an outlier. In SE TX and probably 80% of the country, 250K buys a very nice house which is 50% larger than the average house of 30-40 years ago.




Tons more to choose from. Insanely good bargains for this generation! No wonder there is a great exodus from CA going on.
Downside of those houses is that they're in Houston, nothx jeffs.
 
I am not sure if you can call 250K in Texas can buy you a great house. Location matters. I'd compare 400k to what is equivalent of a great house in Planos. You can go to Houston if you want but you won't get those higher paying jobs there vs a real tech hub.
Near Plano:




Any way you want to slice it and dice it, the bargains are there.
 
The way Texas deal with the electrical grid the semiconductor industry will leave soon, and the tech hub may leave too. Infrastructure matters. NXP lost 100M because of the power issue.
Industry and Tech are abandoning CA like crazy, and much of it is headed TO TX. Good luck with that, LOL.


"They are fleeing high taxes, expensive housing, and governmental regulations"

 
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Industry and Tech are abandoning CA like crazy, and much of it is headed TO TX. Good luck with that, LOL.


"They are fleeing high taxes, expensive housing, and governmental regulations"

USING BIG FONTS DOESN'T MAKE YOU CORRECT. IT MAY MAKE YOU LOOK "RIGHT" BUT IT JUST MAKES YOU LOOK ANGRY.

Just to let you know, cost cutting companies move to Texas, the critical people are still in the bigger tech hub making big tech hub money instead of getting a pay cut to move there. Good people wanting more pay move to Seattle and not Texas certainly not Houston (maybe Dallas and Austin). You see the typical pay in Texas being low and people still didn't move there even when the cost of living is high.

Want a better comparison? Use Austin instead of Houston.
 
Near Plano:




Any way you want to slice it and dice it, the bargains are there.
Ok so this is a bit better, for that kind of school you might be able to get something like that for 800k in this area.

I wouldn't consider that a "bargain" but certainly better.
 
Then pony up a couple million and move to Silicon Valley. Be my guest!
To be fair, there are people getting 400k jobs moving here and they are happy.

I wouldn't move here with a 80k offer these days though, better be at least 200k to start.
 
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USING BIG FONTS DOESN'T MAKE YOU CORRECT. IT MAY MAKE YOU LOOK "RIGHT" BUT IT JUST MAKES YOU LOOK ANGRY.
Actually you totally misunderstood. The font was copy/pasted from that site I linked to. I tried to modify it, and clicked on the "bold" button, etc. but could not change it. Go to the site and see it for yourself.

However, YOU USING BIG FONTS in this reply just makes you look (I'll be very nice here!) um, presumptuous.
 
My current mortgage is at 4.05% APR. I have been seeing people refinance for rates in the low 2% range. The last time I checked with my current mortgage company their best rate for a VA loan was still over 3% and wasn't worth refinancing. I might be better off now to go to a 15 year mortgage, or at least not go more than 20 years, which is how much time I have left on my current mortgage. What company did you use? I don't trust these things that pop up on FB (like Quicken and similar places), most of them seem like shysters to me. Any amount I can lower my monthly payment due to paying less in interest is a net income increase...
Your rate may be fine depending on where you are in your loan. I would compare your current interest expense to a refi's interest expense.
Perhaps just put more into the monthly payment and make it act like a 15 year loan?
The interest rate is only part of the equation.

I would talk to a good broker. I have one who really helped me pay off our property. I owe him a lot.
 
This thread went south so I'll add my 2 cents.

My wife travels for her job and is a senior bussiness analyst. She works for a firm that gets hired to improve a businesses productivity and other aspects. No offense to Texans, she says they are the HARDEST people to deal with. You can't change their mind, they don't want to hear your opinion and they only want to deal with like minded people. She doesn't have anything positive to say about California either.
Her firm tells companies that want to relocate or expand to look at the Carolinas or Tennesee.
 
I bought a brand new 3 bedroom 2 bath brick house in 1976 on 1 acre for $27,900 and my payments were $250 a month including taxes and insurance in an escrow account. My brother told me at the time I was crazy for buying such a high dollar house! I can’t remember the exact interest rate but it was double digits. I paid my current house off (30 year conventional loan, in 22 years...5 years ago) and have been debt free $ince. If I could just move it 3,000 miles to the left........:unsure:
 
They better get those 400K tech jobs fast then, because they are disappearing from CA in a hurry.
Friend, you are very mistaken. The Valley is booming right now.
The already insane housing market continues to go higher and companies are expanding like crazy.
In my neighborhood houses sell in 1 day.
 
This thread went south so I'll add my 2 cents.

My wife travels for her job and is a senior bussiness analyst. She works for a firm that gets hired to improve a businesses productivity and other aspects. No offense to Texans, she says they are the HARDEST people to deal with. You can't change their mind, they don't want to hear your opinion and they only want to deal with like minded people. She doesn't have anything positive to say about California either.
Her firm tells companies that want to relocate or expand to look at the Carolinas or Tennesee.
Its real interesting, I dealt with unrefutable facts, but the guy from CA corroborated nothing. I provided a number of links to back up everything I said, but no one else did. The guy from CA also erroneously scolded me for big fonts, before getting the full picture,

But oh, OK, "Texans are the HARDEST people to deal with".... LOL!
 
Friend, you are very mistaken. The Valley is booming right now.
The Investopedia link I provided indicates otherwise.


  • Silicon Valley has been the epicenter of the tech industry for decades.
  • High housing costs, high tax rates, and strict regulations have made it challenging to live, work, and do business in the area.
  • More tech companies are opting to move operations to Texas and other states with lower costs of living and more-favorable tax laws.
  • Oracle and Hewlett Packard are among the tech giants who have recently announced plans to move their headquarters to Texas.
I wonder how its booming in the midst of a quantifiable tech exodus? Maybe another industry is taking techs place?
 
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