Has anyone recently refinanced their home?

[Ol'FashionHen]

My boss and neighbors recently refinanced their homes and both received lower rates. my DH and I have been thinking about it too, our original interest was fixed as 5.75 % on a 30 year loan. My boss just received a fixed rate of 4.65 % on a 15-20 year. Does it matter on your fixed rate if it is a 30 or 20 year loan I thought it all was based on your credit score for what your rate would be? Our neighbors received a fixed rate of 5.75 % on a 30 year loan and they received money back at closing with no closing fees so what is up with that?

 

[georgialee]

Rates will be better on shorter term mortgages. Rates JUST went up .5% in the last week

. I was going to refiniance this week until I found that out. Your rate will also depend on your credit score. If you do a cash-out refinance your rate will be higher and if you roll in closing costs it will be even higher still.

 

[Ol'FashionHen]

ohh...

 

[coffeelady3]

The rates around here were at 4.5% when I decided to refinance. With my credit score, I'm going to end up with 5% and, funny enough, my payment is going to go up! The good news is that I'm getting out of my ARM!!! (which right now is at 3.85 %) So it will be a good move in the long run....

 

[Mahonri]

When I think of what rates were 20 years ago, I am amazed.

 

[BarkerChickens]

We just refinanced our home from a 30 yr at 6.75% to a 30 yr at 5.00%. We signed last week and the rate went up .25% before we could lock it in.

But, we still saved a bunch with what we did get!

The general rule of thumb is if you can save 1% on your interest rate and you can recoup the cost of the closing costs within 2-5 years, then it is worth refinancing. Never hurts to shop around and see what current rates are since you don't have to commit to anything!

 

[River Lizard]

It's not so much the monthly payments that you should be looking at, it's the total cost of paying off your house loan. 15 yr. loan should be a target if you can swing it, because you'll save thousands of dollars on your overall loan. We're currently looking at switching ours from a fixed 30 to a fixed 15 yr. so we can pay it off quicker and reduce the overall cost that we're paying in interest. We'd like to retire in 10 yrs., well at least that's our goal. The wife wants to move to Costa Rica once that happens.

 

[NRacine]

We qualified for the FHA streamline, went from 6% 30 yr to 5%. And the lender promised us a no-fee refi when we first got the loan, so we didn't have to pay a dime!