Mortgage rates coming down !

[einreb]

just went from a 30 year 6.125% to a 30 year 5% for $250 out of pocked. simple refi from the same lender (wells fargo) direct.

seemed like a nobrainer.

[Kistle]

What's the trick to talk your existing mortgage holder (local in my situation) to refinance without all of the garbage (appraisal, flood cert, taxes, etc...)??

JA

[jorian]

Rates will still come down.

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by Jandrews

What's the trick to talk your existing mortgage holder (local in my situation) to refinance without all of the garbage (appraisal, flood cert, taxes, etc...)??

JA

Pretty tough to do unless your note is serviced by the same place that originated the loan and that's rare. Why would anyone do a loan without a recent appraisal or flood cert? Unless yours were done in the last six mos., I'm sure you'll have to do them again. If my dad held my note, he wouldn't refi it without an appraisal. That's nuts.

[Billbo]

Was quoted 4.75% 30 yr fixed last night to refi my Wells Fargo mortgage. Currently @ 6%. Consultant did not think they would go lower but who knows.

[cantdrv55]

Help me think this through.

I picked a 4.6% with 1 point for 30 years over 4.45 with 1 point for 15 years because the 30 yr mortgage gives me the flexibility to make double or almost double payments which will decrease the time to pay off significantly. It won't lower it to 15 years but close enoigh for me. I didn't want to get locked into a higher 15 yr payment just in case I might not be able to afford it in the future.

Also, I chose the 1 point because I plan to stay in the mortgage for a while and in my calculations, the fees can be paid off in 3.4 years or so.

How's my logic? Did I make the right choice?

[Drdogface]

Originally Posted by cantdrv55

Help me think this through.

I picked a 4.6% with 1 point for 30 years over 4.45 with 1 point for 15 years because the 30 yr mortgage gives me the flexibility to make double or almost double payments which will decrease the time to pay off significantly. It won't lower it to 15 years but close enoigh for me. I didn't want to get locked into a higher 15 yr payment just in case I might not be able to afford it in the future.

Also, I chose the 1 point because I plan to stay in the mortgage for a while and in my calculations, the fees can be paid off in 3.4 years or so.

How's my logic? Did I make the right choice?

I guess it would depend on how secure your income is, income to payment ratio, and if you have the discipline to make the extra payments. Both are fantastic rates and I'd like to know what bank you are dealing with. I just pulled the trigger on a 4.8% fixed 15yr. over a 5.8 fixed 30 year. Paying off in 15 years saves you a LOT of dough if you plan to stay there long term.

Bank ?? It's not too late for me to dump the one I just applied for ....

[Don Plumley]

I have an interesting challenge - we have a 5/30 that will have it's first adjustment in June. If it were to adjust today, it would drop to less than 2%. Or to look at it another way, T Bill rates would have to rise above 3% for my loan interest rate to increase. I wonder how long that will take...

[RANDY P]

Originally Posted by Don Plumley

I have an interesting challenge - we have a 5/30 that will have it's first adjustment in June. If it were to adjust today, it would drop to less than 2%. Or to look at it another way, T Bill rates would have to rise above 3% for my loan interest rate to increase. I wonder how long that will take...

It would depend on the Note's "Floor Rate"- there is a minimum they will charge.

Edit- of course you can pretty much assure yourself it's going to be the same as what the note started with. I'd refi to get out of it, rates have never been lower. If you are gonna keep the house don't pass it up.

rjp

[mikester]

How do they figure out your monthly debt ratio when trying to qualify you for a loan? I know there is my mortgage, taxes, and then there are the credit cards. We don't have what most people have but I do have a balance, how do they calculate that into my monthly debt load to income ratio? The dude told me tonight it can't be more than say 52% debt to income. I just don't know how they calculate it - I'll be calling him back tomorrow to find out.

Do they use gross or net income for the calculation?

I'm trying to refi into these awesome rates, we have 5.875% 30 year fixed now but if I can get that down to 4.875% my monthly savings is considerable.

I finally got a hold of my current bank today to discuss this with them (Was calling other banks while waiting for them to get back to me).

With a current 5.875% I really seem to have to work to get something better that is worth the effort (maybe?).

Wells is telling me that I need documentation up the pooper and super high FICO. Last time we pulled our FICO scores I was like 740 and the wife was 800 which was over the summer.

The wife's not really working right now, she just had a baby and she's self employed.

Our only debt is the mortgage and the heloc, which we would like to consolidate into one 30 year fixed (AT 4.75%!!!) and a bit on the cards lately. I've been remodeling one of our bedrooms and bathrooms so we have about 10k spread over 2 cards. No car payments, no other debt. We have about 15k in cash as well.

Soooooo...I want 4.75!

It's funny, they could tell me that with the current numbers I don't qualify for their better loan but if they give me that better loan then their risk on me is significantly lower. If I don't get a better loan, I will be writing every person in office who even closely relates to me. We bail them out and us folks who are responsible get the shaft.

[Aurel]

Originally Posted by einreb

just went from a 30 year 6.125% to a 30 year 5% for $250 out of pocked. simple refi from the same lender (wells fargo) direct.

seemed like a nobrainer.

Did they roll any other costs in the new mortgage, or was $250 all it cost for the refinance? In my case, I could go from 6.625% to 5.25% with my lender with zero out of pocket, but the closing cost will be about $2,800 rolled into the new mortgage.

Aurel

[einreb]

Originally Posted by Aurel

Did they roll any other costs in the new mortgage, or was $250 all it cost for the refinance? In my case, I could go from 6.625% to 5.25% with my lender with zero out of pocket, but the closing cost will be about $2,800 rolled into the new mortgage.

Aurel

would have been 4.875% rate with $1500 in closing costs or they bump up the rate to 5% and $250 in closing costs. The lower rate would have taken 5ish years to recover the higher closing costs.

pick your poison sort of thing.

[Laneco]

We had an unpleasant experience....thought I'd share...

Called up our mortgage guy, Brian, who says we would be able to do a 4.85% (he's very familiar with us - done our last couple of loans) with very little out of pocket. But there's a big catch...

For the home value they now look at foreclosures and short sells. That was not the case in the past. It is now. So if you, like us, have a couple of neighbors who went belly up and short-sold their houses, then THOSE will be the comparables as absolutely nothing else in our neighborhood is selling.

Needless to say, when comparing the price on a short-sell, we come out badly. The 25% equity that we had two years ago is well under zero when compared to the neighboring short-sells.

If you are in an area where houses are still selling, then you'll be able to refinance but if you are in our area, you are hosed unless you have so much equity that you are still 80% of the current short-sell figures...

dang.

angela

[MotoSook]

Are rates creeping back up?

[mikester]

Today rates at Wells appear to be 5.0%, with a point you can get 4.875%. Yesterday a point got you 4.75%.

I'm getting my paperwork in and hoping for another dip.

I have 5.875% now, with a dip down to 5% and consolidating my heloc into my 30 year fixed I remove that HELOC from existance and saves me a few hundred a month on my mortgage. All in all - it saves me enough to be worth the effort but I am considering paying for that poing it if it will get me down to 4.75%. The break even for that is 3.4 years in my calculations. I'll be in the house longer than that I think.

[Billbo]

If you had the dough to pay off the mortgage would that be a wise move. Or, leave it in the market and hope to recover what was lost in "08.