mortgage rates have dropped!!!

[hollybloom24]

I just got 3.875% for a 15 year fixed, non-jumbo in Massachusetts through Sovereign Bank. No points, no closing costs. Check with your mortgage brokers!!!

[Pinky]

Was this for a new loan or a refinance?

Congrats, that is an awesome rate!

[schrocat]

Fabulous! That's a great rate!

[LarsMal]

Holy smokes that's low- awesome!!!

[♥ms.pacman♥]

wow, i'm jealous. that is awesome.

[larig]

crap, we thought we were doing awesome with a 4.25% for a 15 year fixed last year.

[elbenn]

Do you know what the mortgage rate would have been if it was 30 year instead of 15?

[infocrazy]

Does anyone know what happens in terms of the value drop? We put 20% down when we bought our house, but now only have about 5% I'd guess of equity. If we refinance, will we have to do PMI? We have 5.5 on a 30 so not bad, but if we got a rate like OP, we'd totally do a 15 yr...but not if it forces PMI!

[gordo]

Does anyone know what happens in terms of the value drop? We put 20% down when we bought our house, but now only have about 5% I'd guess of equity. If we refinance, will we have to do PMI? We have 5.5 on a 30 so not bad, but if we got a rate like OP, we'd totally do a 15 yr...but not if it forces PMI!

I am pretty sure the bigger problem is if your house will appraise for the value of the loan. We just bought a foreclosure in Oct and are looking to refinance but our house may not appraise anymore! I am trying to decide if the $400 appraisal cost is worth the gamble of potentially saving me $150 month in my mortgage.

[KHF]

I am pretty sure the bigger problem is if your house will appraise for the value of the loan. We just bought a foreclosure in Oct and are looking to refinance but our house may not appraise anymore! I am trying to decide if the $400 appraisal cost is worth the gamble of potentially saving me $150 month in my mortgage.

I'm in almost this exact situation right now. We bought a house a year ago with a 30 year 5.5% rate. We had our appraisal yesterday, and I'm just *hoping* that it appraises where it needs to. With only a year of payment on our mortgage, we didn't pay off much principal, so it will be close...but if it appraises, we can get a 4.375% rate on a 30 year fixed. If it doesn't, we're out $340 for the appraisal.

[twowhat?]

Can someone explain this whole appraisal thing to me? What does a house need to appraise for in order to make it worth refinancing? And what other factors do you have to consider to figure out whether it's worth refinancing? We bought our house 4 years ago (kind of at the interest rate peak) and trying to figure out how to figure out if it's worth refinancing, considering that we do want to move to a bigger house in the next few years.

Sorry, I'm pretty real-estate stupid:)

[KHF]

In our case, since our loan is still really new and we bought the house with only 5% down, we don't have much equity in the house. If the value of the house has dropped over the last year, we might owe more on the house than they say it's worth so they may not give us a loan to refinance because it wouldn't cover the cost of our current mortgage.

That's my situation anyway.

[elektra]

FYI for any of you with FHA loans- you don't need an appraisal, and it might still make sense to refi, even if your home value has dropped. I am by no means an expert, but I know this much is true.

[joules]

I'm no expert either. But we are currently refinancing (should be signing papers any day now). But I think under some programs you can refi for up to 105% of your home value (or something like that). So depending on how much equity you have and how much your appraisal is....you can still refi even if you owe more than what the house is worth.

twowhat? - I think you can talk to an expert about your situation and they should be able to give you some ballpark figures so you can make a better decision.

[KHF]

I should add that the appraisal coming back on target is what is contingent upon us getting the 4.375 rate to refi. We need to keep it to 95% financing for that rate. We could refi at a slightly higher rate for more...and it would likely still be worth it since our current rate is 5.5%.

[GaPeach_in_Ca]

We just refinanced to 4.675 30 year fixed on a conforming jumbo. I thought that was pretty good, but wow! You guys are getting great rates.

We were still under 80% LTV with our (much lower than last year) appraisal, but we needed it to appraise higher to get as lightly lower rate. Whatever. I wanted to do 15 yr, but DH wanted the flexibility.

[♥ms.pacman♥]

Can someone explain this whole appraisal thing to me? What does a house need to appraise for in order to make it worth refinancing? And what other factors do you have to consider to figure out whether it's worth refinancing? We bought our house 4 years ago (kind of at the interest rate peak) and trying to figure out how to figure out if it's worth refinancing, considering that we do want to move to a bigger house in the next few years.

Sorry, I'm pretty real-estate stupid:)

to get the best rates (without having to pay mortgage insurance), you'd want the refinanced loan to be less than or equal to 80% of the current appraised value of your home. so depending how much equity you have in your home, you may or may not be able to refinance for the best rates without dumping some more cash into the equity. this is in fact what we had to do.

but if as you say you might be moving soon, it may not be worth the hassle (even assuming the loan doesn't cost you anything to close, i.e., no points paid, and lender gives you cash to cover all the various fees). there are a bunch of calculators online you can check out to see whether it is worth it.

also, a good site for information is:

http://www.mtgprofessor.com/home.aspx

good luck!

[hollybloom24]

Mine was a refi. Check sovereignbank.com and you can get the rate for a 30 year.

I should clarify that this was a non-jumbo, 15 year fixed. We needed to have high FICO scores and I believe our house had to appraise so that we had at least 50% equity to qualify for that rate. This is the rules of this bank and loan - I am sure others are different.

As long as you don't pay points or closing costs, it pays to investigate refinancing. I'm only saving $50 a month and about $9,000 over 15 years on this refi, but if someone handed me a $50 bill, I'd take it!

I did have to pay one month of escrow at the closing - around $650. In the past I have had to also pay one month ahead on the current loan (but then skipped a month of paying). Every bank is probably different as to what they require.

[AnnieW625]

Jealous of anyone who can refi to a 15 yr. fixed. When we can finally refi we'll have to get a 30 yr. because and well we have no equity so we're stuck for a while:(.

[onyx8]

We just got a 3.875% on a 15 year last month (refi). Good stuff!

The 30 year was 4.5% at the time.

[ang79]

Thanks for the heads up! I told DH and he is going to research it :) Anything to save us money would be great, as our health insurance just increased, again!

[WatchingThemGrow]

but if as you say you might be moving soon, it may not be worth the hassle (even assuming the loan doesn't cost you anything to close, i.e., no points paid, and lender gives you cash to cover all the various fees). there are a bunch of calculators online you can check out to see whether it is worth it.

also, a good site for information is:

http://www.mtgprofessor.com/home.aspx

This is us...may be moving within the year...low rate (our 7 year ARM ended and the payment went down!) so we're at or under 4 as it is...but we can't find anything decent that we can afford where we want to be. I looked yesterday at the new listings and found a (deceased) neighbor's house is listed a THIRD less than we'd hope ours would be :(. Then I found a friend's house on the market.

Is there any way to just WIN a free house? That's what I need.

[SpaceGal]

We refi'd last year at 4.375% for a 30 year....we had originally had a 7 year ARM...so right not I'm happy to have something fixed. Seeing rates at under 4% is unbelieveable!

[xmasbabycomin]

A couple of FYIs

I DO NOT recommend Bank of America. We had Countrywide, but when they were bought out, we've had nothing but probs. BofA just didn't pay our Homeowners Insurance from our escrow account. They just screwed up. Our policy was cancelled, and it has increased by more than a thousand dollars a year to be reinstated by another company. Because we had a lapse in coverage, we are now higher risk. I have spent countless hours on the phone w/BofA, and even have the name, title and phone number (at least the one he gave me) of a person who promised me the increase in premium would be refunded. Now it's his word against mine, and he won't call me back. My mom owns about 25 houses/rental properties and has dealt w/them, too. Not her fave, either.

Also, we did a 25 year a few years back. We got cash out to pay off debt and wanted to pay our house off at the same time we would have originally. Many places will let you do something between 15 and 30, which sometimes people don't realize.

[Nyfeara]

Since I saw the OP, we've been calling around about refinancing our mortgage as well. We bought 7 yrs ago & had a rate of 5.375, so up until this point, it has not really been worth it to refi. Nearly every bank I called was quoting 4.25% for a 20yr term (most only advertised a 15 or 30yr), but ALL want closing costs, no points. I have not found any willing to do it without closing costs yet.

My mom is a realtor and she absolutely hates dealing with BoA as well. She says everyone she knows complains about working with them. I have been less than happy with their customer service regarding credit cards/rates/limits & chose to terminate any cards with them because of it.

Thanks for the heads up on the rates dropping though!

[JustMe]

If you want to avoid high fees and dont have a large balance, one possibility may be to refinance into a home equity loan instead of a mortgage. The rates can be slightly higher than a mortgage, but the very low fees (I think I paid $200) make it worth it. I also believe that I did not have to have an appraisal, but am not sure.

[Twin Mom]

We also refinanced with a 30 instead of a 15 even though the rate was slightly lower for the 15. We decided to do the 30 to have flexibility in case something happens with one of our jobs. DH ran the numbers based on us paying the same amount we are paying now and we will payoff the mortgage in just over 15 years (I think it was 6 or 9 months longer) even though we did a 30 year mortgage. It was worth it to us in case the economy continues to tank.


We just refinanced to 4.675 30 year fixed on a conforming jumbo. I thought that was pretty good, but wow! You guys are getting great rates.

We were still under 80% LTV with our (much lower than last year) appraisal, but we needed it to appraise higher to get as lightly lower rate. Whatever. I wanted to do 15 yr, but DH wanted the flexibility.