| Question: When is the best time to refinance?
Answer:
It depends on how long you plan to hold on to your house
and if you have to pay anything to refinance. In addition,
it also depends on how far along you are in paying off
your current mortgage.
If you are going to be selling your house shortly, you probably
will not recoup any costs you incur to refinance your mortgage.
If you are more than halfway through paying your current
mortgage, you probably will gain little by refinancing. However,
if you are going to own your home for at least five years,
that's probably long enough to recoup any refinancing costs
you incur and to realize real savings on lowering your monthly
payment. If it is going to cost you nothing to refinance,
you can gain even more.
Many lenders will allow you to roll the costs of the refinancing
into the new note and still reduce the amount of the monthly
payment. Also, there are no-cost refinancing deals available.
In any case, it pays to consult your lender or financial
advisor, or run the numbers yourself, before you refinance.
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