When to refinance

[Anonymous]

I’ve refinanced a couple times and both times it was a no cost, which I far prefer. If you can lower your rate and payment with nothing out of pocket it is one of the easiest decisions in the financial world. There are no downsides. Who cares if you reset your term? All that does is provide optionality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whenever you refinance the clock on your mortgage restarts at 30 years and interest is a larger portion of your monthly payment.

It's not so cut and dried as that. You choose the length of the mortgage when you refi--it does not have to be 30 years. We refinanced from a 10/1 ARM for 30 years to a fixed for 20 about 5 years into making payments. We got a better rate so with the switch, we only have to pay a few hundred more per month and pay down more than the increase in payments in principal each month now.

You could have started with the 20 year term to begin with.

Did you know you can also buy a house with cash? Gee thanks, wish I'd have thought of that! Sometimes people earn more $ in later years, making higher payments not as big of a deal as they would have been before.

[Anonymous]

I checked out the bank rate mortgage calculator. For my situation, a refinance that decreases my rate by .25% lowers my monthly payment but not total interest paid. A .5% decrease lowers both.