refi?

[houseelf]

anyone taking advantage of these crazy low rates? (Wow I sound like a spammer!) Dh and I are looking into converting from a 30 to a 15 year now that the other house is sold. The first quote I received is 1.75 percent lower than our current interest rate. Any suggestions/advice/contacts?

Thanks in advance.

[PrincessFiona]

Our bank offered us a refi with no closing costs etc at the lowest rate last year. We opted for the 15 year instead of the 30 and then also pay extra each month towards the principal. We plan on having this puppy paid off before Aidan leaves for college. If we had taken the 30 year mortgage, our payments would have been lower than they were before the refi. We opted for the 15, which cost us slightly more than we had been paying but will reduce the time we owe. I say do it and have the house paid off as soon as you can!

Kris

[JaneDoe]

Go for it if your loan to value is acceptable. We would be refinancing again if it wasn't for the LTV. The value of our home has gone down so much that we no longer have 20% equity. Boo. We purchased our home in 2006, at the very, tippy top of the peak of the real estate market. We also would be converting to a 15 year mortgage. Since refinancing is not an option right now, Dh and I are considering paying ahead on our loan at the 15 year rate anyhow.

[diggitydot]

We'll only be here for another 10 months, so no refi for us. I'm just hoping rates stay low until we need to move.

[Vanquisher]

We can't, unfortunately! We just bought, of course, and don't have enough equity yet. Our rate isn't horrible, but not great either. We got a 100% loan and had a hard time getting a mortgage in the first place because of being self-employed and not having a large downpayment.

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[HouseofWool]

My gut feeling is that rates are going to continue to stay relatively low for a while. The Dow fell 500 pts yesterday (close to 5%). There is no way that the fed is going to make any significant hikes to rates. (But that is a whole other thread.)

I have a friend who refi'ed into a 7 year loan and only increased his payments nominally. If you LTV is acceptable, I would definitely look into a refi.

My bank just approached us about this. We have a good rate now, but could possibly go down another 1+ % if we did a refi, but we'd be paying closing costs 2 times in a year!! Plus, we only plan to be in this house another 3 years-ish ...

The Fed has pretty much said they're not touching rates until at least 2013, so I don't think these things are going to skyrocket unexpectedly.

[diggitydot]

If they're not touching rates until 2013, we should be OK when we relocate yet again next summer.

[houseelf]

I think that the rule of thumb is that you shouldn't refi unless you are going down a whole percentage point. The 15 year is 3.25 right now, it has never been lower.

The big IF in our question is how long we plan to stay put. I'm ready to live here forever, DH is forever antsy for the next big career move. I will feel schmucky if we don't do this and stay here. I will feel schmucky if we do this and then leave and loose closing costs. Ah, medicine, you fickle beyatch.

[DCJenn]

We will but need to come up with cash for closing so - we'll still be better off w/ a refi- even in a couple weeks.

J.