3.5% mortgage for 15yrs fixed?

doggie750

Refinancing @ the moment and need the mortgage gurus here to give me their 2cents on this. I told da wifey, that's good.

heiney9

It's hard to give 0.02c when you provide absolutely no information.

The rates right now are about the lowest in history so yes the rate is good. How it fits into your lifestyle and budget, etc. Have absolutely no idea.

H9

George Grand

Sounds okay. I think the rule of thumb is "If you're going to be staying there at least another seven years, do it."

Just crunch the numbers with the old payment times months left vs new payment times 174.

billbillw

Bankrate 3-month trend shows national average for 15y fixed is floating between 3.15-3.3%. There are many factors though...your DTI, the amount of equity(if any) in the house, etc.

For comparison, I am getting 3.75% on a 30y fixed for the house we are buying which is actually below what bankrate says for national average. So, you might want to do some additional shopping for loans. Who are you doing the re-fi though? A big bank or a mortgage broker?

muncybob

Just be sure when making comparisons that you are comparing int rate to int rate or APR to APR(which includes some of the closing costs as a finance charge) and not a mixture.
In any case, years ago when I was in the biz I never thought I would see rates like this! Our first home was at 7.25 and then that was a good deal.

steveinaz

Bev & I did ours about 5 months ago at 3.25% 15 years fixed, but keep in mind our credit scores were above 815, and we have about $90,000 in equity.

For those sweating closing cost on a re-fi, keep in mind you usually get a month "off" between mortgages....so what you would have paid in cc may be almost covered by the house payment your gonna skip. YMMV, so talk to your mortgage broker/lender, just an FYI.

Polkersince85

In the late 70's there were 16% mortgages. On a 15 year mortgage, a 1/4 point won't make a lot of difference unless there is a large balance. 3.5% is historically low, they could only got up from here. Not too long ago, 7.5% was considered good.

steveinaz

Yep, it's a killer time to be a buyer---not so much if you have to unload a house first.

PSOVLSK

We just locked a 15 yr fixed at 3.125 last Thursday. Two days earlier it would have been 3%, but one day later and it would have been 3.25%. Our original loan was on 80% of our home cost last Feb., but we paid a lot on that after we sold our old house in March. Our payment is going down about $1000/mo because of the new rate and more importantly the lower amount financed.

FYI: there is a no-cost re-fi where you don't have closing costs. You'd probably get about a 4% or more rate for that option, but no costs would be rolled back into the loan. That was my original intention, but after looking this over we decided it made more sense for us to roll the closing costs back into the new loan.

jflail2

I think banks are lending at about 82% LTV right now, with an average credit score in the low 700's. Rates are incredibly low; great time to refinance man. I have no idea where I'll be 3 years from now though, so I can't quite make a move on a house yet.

cnh

PSOVLSK wrote: »

We just locked a 15 yr fixed at 3.125 last Thursday. Two days earlier it would have been 3%, but one day later and it would have been 3.25%. Our original loan was on 80% of our home cost last Feb., but we paid a lot on that after we sold our old house in March. Our payment is going down about $1000/mo because of the new rate and more importantly the lower amount financed.

FYI: there is a no-cost re-fi where you don't have closing costs. You'd probably get about a 4% or more rate for that option, but no costs would be rolled back into the loan. That was my original intention, but after looking this over we decided it made more sense for us to roll the closing costs back into the new loan.

Wow, a 1000 a month. That's "impressive"! We did a 15 year fixed in 2000 (and paid down the principle--to own the property outright in 2010. 35 percent down because the house was pretty cheap. In fact we were probably paying a 1000 a month (maybe less, with a significant amount of that 1000 a month being above the actual mortgage payment). I highly suggest paying the loan off as fast as possible if you can--saves thousands!

Enjoy the house.

Currently eyeing retirement property for the future. Might not actually want to "wait" for retirement because this is a buyer's market. Just have to figure out "where" I want to be. American SW (already too many retirees), American South (too hot and humid). Southern Ca., too expensive. You know it's really very difficult to think of the ideal American location? N.E. I'm there already, too much snow, winter, etc.

cnh

dragon1952

Some place like Bend, OR. or N. Cal (well N of S.F.) Check it out.

PSOVLSK

cnh wrote: »

I highly suggest paying the loan off as fast as possible if you can--saves thousands!

Here's how stupid we are: We paid our old house off about 9 months before buying this one. It was nice not having a mortgage payment. We hope to pay this house off in about 5 years and NOT buy another new one 9 months later this time.

parvsmith

Learning how to refinance a mortgage might not be ideal if you are just a few years into the complete repayment of the loan.

But it might be difficult to give 0.02c when you have no clue about it.

parvsmith

Learning how to refinance a mortgage might not be ideal if you are just a few years into the complete repayment of the loan.

But it might be difficult to give 0.02c when you have no clue about it.

chumlie

dragon1952 wrote: »

Some place like Bend, OR. or N. Cal (well N of S.F.) Check it out.

Bend is beautiful. Not much snow but plenty of rain in the winter.

obieone

posts 14 & 15 reported