Calling Homeowners - Time to refinance

[Rage187]

Chase said I could not refi into a streamlined HARP loan because my loan has LPMI and the HARP program excludes servicing those loans.

God I hope they change that.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

Anyone thinking of refinancing should check with existing lender first to see if they offer a no-cost, no-doc refinance. The rate may not be the lowest, but you save a lot of hassle and . . . no costs!

Did this recently. Went from 5.125% to 4.3%. Saved $189 a month. All I had to do was front the escrows (which are not "costs").

OP: I have friends and family who think they know everything about investing, saving, etc. and refuse to listen to anything I have to say about anything, financial or otherwise. Funny thing is, I'm younger than most of them, I have less debt than any of them, and my net worth is greater than all of them combined. It has gotten to the point where I either don't bring the issue of personal finance up, or (when it comes up and they don't listen) I shrug and say, "your life, your call." Trying harder than that just isn't worth the frustration.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

I'm at 5.25%. Not sure about looking into this or not...

If you still have a large amount of principal to pay off on your loan, you should be. No cost refis are in the low 4's. At least they were as of a few weeks ago.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

Which is better? Lower rate but with point or higher rate and no point? Everything else is the same.

Depends on your timeline. If you plan to move in the next year or two, no point would be better.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

@Rage, ask. Our county was more that happy to raise the value of our house even in this economy.

The new lending regs require appraisals for new loans, including refis (at least, according to our mortgage broker). The county value (which sets how much you will pay in tax) doesn't care if the appraisal (which is a guesstimate of market value) comes in low.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

Time for me to look into refinancing.. I think I'm at 5.75% with PMI. Been there 6yrs, not 1 late pmt, and still paying PMI. Not fair. Probably at 90% LTV or more =/

PMI is based on LTV, not timeliness of payments. Get your principal down and it will go away. Here's a tip. Find out what your PMI payment is. Add that amount to your payment (if you can afford it), and designate the extra amount as "to be applied to principal." Doing that will reduce your LTC ratio to a point where PMI is no longer necessary. Plus, when you stop paying PMI, you can either save the extra, or keep paying the same amount and pay down your principle even quicker. By then, you will be used to not seeing that money.

 

[highland145]

The new lending regs require appraisals for new loans, including refis (at least, according to our mortgage broker). The county value (which sets how much you will pay in tax) doesn't matter if the appraisal (which is a guesstimate of market value) comes in low.

Yep. Just bitching about the county.

Probably should keep my mouth shut. I'd be willing to bet my taxes/appraisal per sqft are in the bottom 25% in the country even with all the transplants.

 

[purbeast0]

kind of on topic...

what are the best sites to find the value of houses sold recently in a neighborhood you are looking to purchase?

is zillow the best for this?

 

[dullard]

kind of on topic...

what are the best sites to find the value of houses sold recently in a neighborhood you are looking to purchase?

is zillow the best for this?

Zillow does it fairly easilly, but you do have to know it has limitations. Not all data like that is publically available. So, Zillows data may be years/decades old or just an educated guess as to what the sales prices were.

I personally use my county assessor's office. If the data is publically available, that will be were Zillow most likely gets it from. So why not just go right to the source?

 

[Rage187]

kind of on topic...

what are the best sites to find the value of houses sold recently in a neighborhood you are looking to purchase?

is zillow the best for this?

I use Trulia

 

[JEDI]

penfed refi's are 0points, no closing costs.

10yr fixed is 3.99%
5yr arm is 2.99% (rate wont recalc for 5yrs, so kinda like a 5yr fixed. refi at 5th yr if u dont like the new rate)

 

[PingSpike]

Personally I don't bother with points because I figure I'll just refi again if rates go down and the paid points didn't seem to reduce the interest rate much. So far that has worked for me. I remember doing the math when I bought a house and it just seemed like an ass load of money to buy the rate down to not appreciably reduce the monthly payment. In other words, the pay off time just seemed way to long.

They'll tell you rates are historically low all day long. And its true I guess, but they've been saying that for like 3 years. Maybe they'll shoot up to 8% tomorrow but at this point I kind of doubt it.

The 15 year definitely seems like a better deal than it used too. I seem to remember it only being 0.5% less than a 30 year when I bought my house, now it seems closer to 1%.

 

[PingSpike]

penfed refi's are 0points, no closing costs.

10yr fixed is 3.99%
5yr arm is 2.99% (rate wont recalc for 5yrs, so kinda like a 5yr fixed. refi at 5th yr if u dont like the new rate)

I suppose it varies by state but that sounds crap to me. My credit union has 15 year fixed for 3.375% today and 30 year fixed for 4.125%. My credit union offers ARMs but they have the same interest rates as the 15 year fixed so I see no point in them.

 

[Eos]

Our appraisal came in at 7% over purchase price. Broker says we're a go for the next step. Fucking sweet. I don't have the rest of the details, but I'm hoping the APR is low.

 

[mshan]

The 10-year Treasury note dropped to 1.75 percent from 2.07 percent in a week. Mortgage rates at yesterday's low (up 0.125 percent now) translated to:

• If your FICO score is 670 and you have low equity, 4.25 percent.
• If your FICO score is 800 and your loan-to-value ratio is 50 percent, 3.875 percent.

Whatever you are, if you don't have a vanilla job, "you ain't nuthin'."

http://www.inman.com/buyers-sellers...-great-depression-dont-wait-till-its-too-late

 

[Godsend1]

I just refinanced with Chase, since I was already a customer there was no PMI added even though we are underwater by about 5%. Went from a 10/ARM@5.25 to a 7/ARM at 3.875, saving $280/month. Credit score is well above 800.

 

[MotionMan]

We were literally about 2 hours away from signing our refi papers on Thursday evening when our loan broker (a buddy of mine) called to put a hold on things to grab a lower rate.

We are signing the new papers on Monday.

MotionMan

 

[mrCide]

can't refi when you're 50% underwater. fortunately you can strategically default..

 

[Eos]

The final papers arrived in the mail today: locked in at 4.375%. We're skipping December's payment, and the new one will be $270 less per month. Plus it's a standard 30 year fixed, unlike the 10 years interest only, then a slight uptick for the last 20 years that was the previous loan.

 

[highland145]

The final papers arrived in the mail today: locked in at 4.375%. We're skipping December's payment, and the new one will be $270 less per month. Plus it's a standard 30 year fixed, unlike the 10 years interest only, then a slight uptick for the last 20 years that was the previous loan.

Grats.

4.375% on your $270/mo for 30years=$203,695.52

 

[Doppel]

Just an FYI - rates are very low right now. I am refinancing my 30 year loan (currently 28 years left on it) at 4.875% down to a 20 year loan at 3.875%. Payments will be about $100 more per month but how will be paid off 8 years earlier and will save about $240,000 in financing charges. This is the second time I have refinanced. First time was back in 2009 when I went from 6.25% down to 4.875%. Rule of thumb is to look at refinancing when you can drop an entire point on interest.

On a side note, I have a co-worker/friend who is still paying over 6% on their home loan. Her husband, a computer science major, refuses to refinance the home as he thinks it is too good to be true, some kind of scam, and can't stomach the few thousand dollars in finance charges despite me showing them the break even (essentially showing how much they will save each month and how many payments they will need to make before saving the amount it cost to refinance.) Obviously refinancing doesn't make sense if you are planning to sell in a year, but they aren't panning to.

Anyone else have friends who refuse to take objectively good advice?

Most people are bad at taking good advice. In fact, I think one of the greatest virtues is being able to set down your own preconceived sh*t and take the advice of people who actually know more than you do, this is something the majority of people are very bad at.

BTW, if that guy's math skills are really that weak I bet he's an awful software engineer.

I'd love to refinance at your sub-4 rate but I have no substantial equity and thus that won't be happening. I'm a little under 5. I went with my current lender the last time I refied and it still cost me a good $4G in bullsh*t charges and costs and crap. Is a huge pain in the ass.

 

[lokiju]

Our only hope to refinance and get these lower rates is when the new proposed Obama plan kicks in at the end of the year since we currently fit every qualification except for we owe more than 125% of the value. With the new plan, that restriction goes away.

Our rate is 6.9% 30 year locked currently so anything in the 4's would be a huge help.

 

[microAmp]

Closed today on the refinance of my home. Rolled the closing cost into the refinance too. Since on the original loan I put 20% down and the estimated value of the house only dropped by $8000 from what I paid, PMI wasn't a concern, though there is always HARP program for others.

Former loan was 6.375% 30yr, 4.5yrs into it.. New one is now 3.375% 15yr, mortgage payment only goes up by $70.

Thanks OP for pointing this out.

 

[boomhower]

Former loan was 6.375% 30yr, 4.5yrs into it.. New one is now 3.375% 15yr, mortgage payment only goes up by $70.

Thanks OP for pointing this out.

Nice work! And I thought the 3.5% at 15 I got last week was good.

 

[Triumph]

I was just looking at rates today, I'm locked in at 4.375%, bought about 16 months ago, and the only way to drop a point would be to refinance with a 15 year loan (currently 30), which raises my monthly payment $400. If I really wanted to pay it off earlier, I could probably just pay the extra $400 a month and save myself the time and effort of refinancing.

Or more than likely, I'll just do nothing.