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Cheri Merz

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To Refi or Not To Refi--Here Are The Answers
2/20/2006 11:08:14 PM
Hi, Friends Are you considering refinancing your home? Before you decide, please read the following article (with my editorial comments in red). Hope this helps you make an informed decision. Cheri PS, this article is too long for one post, so watch for the rest of the story tomorrow! Update: Here's the rest of the story. ============================================ 4 reasons not to refinance Even with mortgage rates at historic lows, refinancing a home doesn't make sense for everyone. Here's how to figure out what you want, run the numbers and decide for yourself. By Liz Pulliam Weston Mortgage refinancings keep hitting record highs as interest rates dribble to generational lows. That doesn’t mean everybody should join the party, however. “Out of every 10 calls I get, probably three of them really shouldn’t refinance,” said mortgage broker J.J. Sims, owner of ABC Mortgage in Minneapolis and a member of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers’ board of directors. “A lot of people get caught up in the hype of lower interest rates and don’t really think it through.” The most obvious case of when refinancing doesn’t make sense is when the homeowner won’t live in the house long enough for the savings from a refinancing to outweigh the costs of getting a loan. (I’ll tell you exactly how to figure that out below.) Any of the following also can be red flags: • Have you been paying a long time on the loan you already have? If you’re 10 or 20 years into a 30-year mortgage, refinancing to another 30-year loan may (definitely will) only increase your costs in the long run. • Is your credit worse than the last time you got a mortgage? If you’ve missed payments, run up big credit-card bills or otherwise stressed your credit, you may not qualify for a low enough rate for refinancing to make sense. • Have you already stripped all the equity out of your home? To get the best rates, you’ll need to keep your borrowing to less than 80% of the value of your home. Refinancing might not make sense if you’ve already borrowed 90% or more of your home’s value in mortgages and home equity loans. Continually borrowing the equity in your home will rob you of your retirement goals. You can see a slide here that will show you why. Look for slide 10 of 35. • Do you have a spending problem? Taking out extra cash during a refinancing to pay off credit-card debt is a popular tactic these days -- and a huge potential mistake. You’ve turned what should be short-term debt into long-term debt, which can cost you more in the long run despite the tax advantages from being able to write off the interest. You’ve also put your home at greater risk and compromised your financial situation should you ever have to declare bankruptcy. Cut up the cards In fact, “people who take out money to pay off credit cards and have no intention of changing their credit-card behavior” are No. 1 on economist Doug Duncan’s list of those who shouldn’t refinance. These overspenders usually continue racking up big debts and sucking out more of their home’s equity, leaving themselves vulnerable to bankruptcy and foreclosure. The statistic is that most people who refinance for this reason are in the same financial situation within two years. Duncan, chief economist for the Mortgage Bankers Association of America, believes people with big credit-card debts need to learn to live within their means before they even consider tapping their home equity. I’d make the caution even stronger: You need to be willing to cut up your credit cards and live on cash, so you don’t find yourself underwater in a few years. To determine whether refinancing makes sense for you, you’ll first need to jettison the idea that there’s some rule of thumb that can make the decision for you. It used to be, back in the day when everybody got 30-year fixed mortgages and refinancing costs were high, that interest rates had to fall at least two points below your current rate for refinancing to make sense. Now there are so many different kinds of mortgages -- 20-year fixed, 15-year fixed, adjustable rate and hybrid mortgages that are fixed for three to 10 years before becoming adjustable -- and so much competition driving down costs that rules of thumb don’t really work anymore. To be continued... ============================================ Tomorrow: Set goals, read up, calculate Cheri
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Donna Zuehl

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Re: To Refi or Not To Refi--Here Are The Answers
2/20/2006 11:20:14 PM
Thanks for the information on refinancing your home. It contains valuable information. We refinanced a couple years ago, getting an adjustable mortgage. My husband has plans for us to move down in housing in a few years. I love my current house so it will be difficult to leave. What I dislike about refinancing is the closing costs. If you refinance too often those costs will eat up your savings on your mortgage. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the article. DonnaZ
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Tim
Tim Southernwood

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Re: To Refi or Not To Refi--Here Are The Answers
2/20/2006 11:36:20 PM
Valuable information to everyone owning a home. I'm looking forward to part two!
Tim Southernwood/Get eH² Packs!/BlogNet Awards We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit - Aristotle
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Amanda Martin-Shaver

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Re: To Refi or Not To Refi--Here Are The Answers
2/20/2006 11:46:23 PM
Hi Cheri, Thank you for the invitation to your informative forum. Kind regards Amanda Martin-Shaver
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Re: To Refi or Not To Refi--Here Are The Answers
2/21/2006 12:10:01 AM
yikes!! Cut my cards now! All this if fine and good when life doesn't throw you any curve balls. What does one do when you're stuck in a certain "monthly expense profile" and the "income generating rug" gets pulled out from beneath you? The only place that your money lies is in your equity - so you take. Not with the intention of repaying it, but with the hope that something will turn around soon. Hmmm... 5 years and still waiting..
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