Have any of you refinanced your mortgage lately?

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Oct 8, 2006
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OH
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...
 
Ouch 4.05%

Wife refi'd ours about 2 months ago and got something like 2.375% on a 15.

It even has a chart that shows the last couple months and where they've been at. You can see they've been rising recently so now would be the best time to refi.
 
Yes. We got 2.5% on a 30 yr and enough lender credits to "make" $2-3k (went into escrow anyways)

But sorry, you missed out by 2-3 months. Rates climbed a 1/2% or more recently. You could still beat 4.05%, but should have done so multiple times by now. No cost refis are the safe way to deal with mistiming the lows. If it goes lower, just refi again (usually have to wait 6 months, depending on lender).
 
We refinanced back in September/October. We went from 3.875% to 2.25%. Closing costs were minimal (~$1k).
 
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...
I remember you were telling people not to finance from a company that will sell your loans to investors. Maybe that's the reason your rate is high?

I go on zillow / bankrate to see who has the lowest APR and fees (and best cashback for closing cost by the broker), I don't shop local because they are all high cost. I never go by relationship because they don't get the same rate no matter what, even if you are repeating customers.
 
I remember you were telling people not to finance from a company that will sell your loans to investors. Maybe that's the reason your rate is high?

I go on zillow / bankrate to see who has the lowest APR and fees (and best cashback for closing cost by the broker), I don't shop local because they are all high cost. I never go by relationship because they don't get the same rate no matter what, even if you are repeating customers.
I don't remember telling people that, and why would that make my rate high? Are you saying the loan industry has blacklisted me?
 
Mid 70s? I think my parents' initial mortgage rate was 12% back in the 70s.
Late 80's, I think it was 1989. It was the going rate at that time. We had good credit, etc.

It amazes me how good young people have it now. I have a co-worker about 30 years old and he moans and groans about "how hard it is to raise a family" on his $80K income". Finally one day I told him that he has no idea! I told him I paid 11.5% then and he got a 2.25% mortgage now, and I paid near $4/gal gas at times, while he was paying less than $2/ gal. Adjusted for inflation, his mortgage and gas was ALMOST FREE.

This generation has NO IDEA what tough time really is.
 
Be aware there are fees for each refinance you do. You can roll these into principal but do it often as some have eluded to catch lower rates you will drag your mortgage out.

My largest regret is not initially going with 15 year mortgage in 2008 even with 6% interest instead of 30 year because I'd be near done. Instead I am 6 years out with our refinances x3 which is a lot of fees but lower interest (2.875% under HARP)
 
I don't remember telling people that, and why would that make my rate high? Are you saying the loan industry has blacklisted me?
I might have mixed up you and someone else then. The reason it will make rate high is because it means the bank cannot just sell the loan and reuse the capital for more funding later, and that also increase the risk of them not able to get money if the cannot sell it as needed.

Imagine you buy a car from a seller you promised you will drive it till the wheel fell off. Do you want a huge discount? The same goes for banks lending you money as a mortgage, they would demand a higher interest.
 
Be aware there are fees for each refinance you do. You can roll these into principal but do it often as some have eluded to catch lower rates you will drag your mortgage out.

My largest regret is not initially going with 15 year mortgage in 2008 even with 6% interest instead of 30 year because I'd be near done. Instead I am 6 years out with our refinances x3 which is a lot of fees but lower interest (2.875% under HARP)
There are fees, but you don't always have to pay it. I always go for brokers or lenders that will cash back to pay for these fees, and whatever left over roll into an escrow account for property tax and insurance. There are a lot of lenders with less advertisement budget and more cash back, a lot of them are what I was told "wholesale" program to brokers that you cannot get if you go to their own website / bank branches / offices.
 
Late 80's, I think it was 1989. It was the going rate at that time. We had good credit, etc.

It amazes me how good young people have it now. I have a co-worker about 30 years old and he moans and groans about "how hard it is to raise a family" on his $80K income". Finally one day I told him that he has no idea! I told him I paid 11.5% then and he got a 2.25% mortgage now, and I paid near $4/gal gas at times, while he was paying less than $2/ gal. Adjusted for inflation, his mortgage and gas was ALMOST FREE.

This generation has NO IDEA what tough time really is.

No you don't.

Homes here were 125-200k back in that time on 40k salary, these days it is 1.2-2M on 200k salary. You old folks had it good even with that rate.
 
I hate these low mortgage rates. It has made homes and property more expensive and CD and interest bearing accounts suck.
It is part of mortgage rate but also part of QE making stock prices go up and everyone wants to park their money somewhere. US is not alone, it is a world wide issue now.
 
No you don't.

Homes here were 125-200k back in that time on 40k salary, these days it is 1.2-2M on 200k salary. You old folks had it good even with that rate.

It's not just California, property prices here are out of control. Look what this dump sold for!

 
No you don't.

Homes here were 125-200k back in that time on 40k salary, these days it is 1.2-2M on 200k salary. You old folks had it good even with that rate.
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.
 
No you don't.

Homes here were 125-200k back in that time on 40k salary, these days it is 1.2-2M on 200k salary. You old folks had it good even with that rate.
"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.
 
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