| ||
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
|
|
|
|
Home Equity Loan - When Does Refinancing Make Sense?
For the last two years, interest rates have been much lower than anytime during the last thirty years. This has resulted in an unprecedented boom in real estate sales, home refinancing and home equity lending, as borrowers try to take advantage of these rates for the long term. But refinancing or even borrowing against your home's equity may not make sense for everyone. When is it a good idea to refinance your home? When is it not advisable? Traditionally, lenders advised homeowners not to refinance unless doing so would lower the interest rate on the loan by 1-2%. While anyone who can save 2% on their interest rate would almost certainly benefit from doing so, others might find refinancing worthwhile even with a smaller reduction in the interest rate. Increased competition among lenders has brought the costs of refinancing down in recent years, so homeowners can realize a significant reduction in their home payments with reductions of ½% or so, depending on the size of their mortgage. The key to whether or not refinancing makes sense is how long the homeowner intends to remain in his or her home. The costs of the refinancing, which can run $1000-2000, are amortized over the life of the loan. For many people, a reduction of $50 or more in the house payment would be more than enough to justify a new mortgage. If payments cannot be reduced by at least that much, or if the homeowner plans to live in the home only a short while, refinancing may not be a good option. Refinancing may also make sense for those with Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARMs.) At the moment, at 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is quite competitive with an ARM, and may actually be cheaper. With rates at historic lows, an ARM can only adjust upward, making it a less desirable choice in comparison with a fixed-rate loan. Anyone considering a home remodeling project or debt consolidation might ordinarily think of a home equity loan or line of credit. These are often wise choices, as they offer deductible interest and great repayment flexibility. On the other hand, a chance to obtain a 30-year loan at 5% might make a complete refinancing with a cash-out option a better choice, as home equity rates are somewhat higher than first mortgages. A new mortgage might also make sense for anyone with a second mortgage or a piggyback loan. A piggyback loan is a second loan used at the time of a home's purchase to help the buyer avoid paying the sometimes-expensive private mortgage insurance. Simultaneous payments on two mortgages will be higher than paying on one, so this might be a great time to roll them together on a refinance. The same applies to anyone carrying a large credit card balance; that money could be rolled into a home loan with deductible interest at a lower rate. Anyone considering such a move should be careful, however, as failure to repay that debt could lead to home foreclosure. Now is a great time for any homeowner to consider whether or not a new mortgage could help lower their payments. With interest rates as low as they are now, the timing is great, and there's nowhere for the rates to go but up. ©Copyright 2005 by Retro Marketing. Charles Essmeier is the owner of Retro Marketing, a firm devoted to informational Websites, including End-Your-Debt.com, a Website devoted to debt consolidation and credit counseling information and HomeEquityHelp.net, a site devoted to information on mortgages and home equity loans.
MORE RESOURCES:
Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
5 Steps to Getting on Top of your Mortgage Getting on top of your mortgage so you can pay your loan off faster and potentially save thousands of dollars on your home loan is possible with a plan and consistent effort. There are mortgage reduction strategies that you can put into place that will ensure that your loan is paid off more quickly without putting a huge strain on your current budget. Buying A Home? Reasons to Consider Financing Your New Home Loan Online Financing your new home loan online can save you time and money. With information at your fingertips, you can quickly educate yourself about the loan process and compare mortgage lenders to find the best rates. How To Turn Disadvantages Of A Reverse Mortgage To Your Advantage When it comes to a reverse mortgage, wise consumers weigh the advantages and disadvantages prior to signing on the dotted line.Let's start on a positive note, you could do what most borrowers do and opt for the reverse mortgage line of credit. Poor Credit Home Mortgage Loans - The Role of the FICO Score If you have bad credit history and are looking to get a home mortgage loan, then chances are you are going to need to know all about how the FICO credit scoring system works.FICO - Fair ISAAC & Company - is the leading credit reporting agency that lenders turn to when it comes time to credit scoring your home loan mortgage application; so if you do have bad credit history, these guys will know. Home Mortgage Refinancing - Things to Consider When Looking to Get Cash Out on a Refinance When you refinance your home mortgage, lenders often tempt you with the option of cashing out part of your home's equity. Cash at a comparably low interest rate may seem like a good option, but make sure you will financially benefit from it first. Apply For Home Mortgage Loan Online With Bad Credit - Things To Consider So, you've found the perfect home. You've already decided where to place each piece of your furniture inside the home, and in your mind, all of your family photographs are hanging alongside the stairwell. Obtaining a Home Equity Loan Online Private lenders, banks, and mortgage companies are all setting up shop on the internet, and all make it possible to obtain a home equity loan online. Competition between lenders is stiff, so be sure to check a few companies that offer applications about their rates, products, and customer service. Reverse Mortgages - A Tax Free Income For Senior Citizens I fully realize if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is and There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch (TANSTAAFL) immediately jumped into your head when you read the title of this article. However, if you are 62 or over, you may have just found the goose that laid the golden egg. 5 Things In Selecting The Best Mortgage - You Should Know Your goal is not only to find the best rates and programs, by searching through a huge number of lenders products, and save yourself thousands of dollars on mortgage payments every year, but also, to save time and hassle by simplifying the loan process and reducing the paperwork. Here are some things you can keep in mind when selecting a mortgage provider. Biweekly Mortgage The biweekly mortgage has been around for years but with the recent media attention to the real estate industry in general and the mortgage industry in particular, the biweekly has been getting thousands of home owners to use this simple, yet powerful, way to speed up the principal payment process. Why is this so popular? How does it work? How can I do this?Here is why this is so popular to hundreds of thousands homeowners. A Guide to Getting Bad Credit Home Improvement Loans You might be wanting to look into bad credit home improvement loans but are unsure of where to start. After all, how do you get a good loan when your credit isn't the greatest?What you probably don't realize is that there are a number of lenders who offer bad credit home improvement loans, which use the equity of your home or other real estate to determine the amount of the loan with no additional collateral needed. How to Secure the Best Mortgage Deal and Save Yourself Thousands in Interest When you consider that the average home owner will pay out far more in interest over the lifetime of their mortgage than their home actually cost in the first place, you can see why working to secure yourself the best possible mortgage deal now could save you tens of thousands of dollars in interest over the 25 - 30 year lifetime of your home loan.For the majority of us our house is the single most important and expensive purchase we ever make! Because this is the case we invest a lot of time and effort into finding the perfect property in the most ideal location, however few of us invest the time and effort we should into researching and securing the best possible finance method for purchasing our home. Bad Credit Home Loans - Dealing With Bad Credit Mortgage Companies Online Dealing with mortgage companies online can enable you to get a home loan even with bad credit. Bank associates' skepticism and talk around are avoided when you apply online with a mortgage broker. Comparing The True Cost Of Obtaining A Home Loan Home buyers are often confused about where to begin in their search for a home loan. The process is usually narrowed down to finding which institutions provide the lowest settlement costs, but the different types of lending institutions and the variety of lending programs available can make the search a slow, difficult experience. Who Else is Ready to have Their Money Work Harder for Them? What does it mean to refinance? Why would anyone want to consider it? There are numerous situations when someone would refinance. When we use the word refinance, we are basically referring to a loan: for example a car or house loan. First Time Buyers Fail To Shop Around Almost two thirds of first time buyers accept the first mortgage they are offered and fail to shop around, often missing out on better deals.Many first time buyers feel pressurised by their estate agents into quickly organising a mortgage for fear of losing out on a property or are attracted to a low interest rate without looking at the mortgage deal as a whole. Remortgage Debt Consolidation - The New Recourse For Credit Crunch Shakespeare once said about human nature 'with nothing shall be pleased, till he be eased with being nothing'. It is human nature to not be satisfied with anything for long. Home Equity Loan Improvements There's more Regulation Z compliance on the way, courtesy of the Home Equity Loan Consumer Protection Act. This fall banks will have to implement the new home equity loan disclosure rules the Federal Reserve Board was required to issue under the act. What is a Self-Certification Mortgage? A Self-Certification mortgage is a mortgage designed for people who are unable to provide proof of income. This type of mortgage was originally designed for the self employed who historically experienced difficulty obtaining a loan with 'high street' lenders due to not having audited accounts available. Adverse Credit Mortgage Loan - Persistence is the Key to Getting Approved People with bad credit that are looking to get a home mortgage loan or to refinance their existing home mortgage loan, know how difficult of a job it can be to try and get approved. Adverse credit history can mean a little more legwork to get an approval for a mortgage loan, and especially to get a decent interest rate.
|
| Home | Privacy Policy & Legal Information | Contact |
