The homeowner with a lower current mortgage balance may need the 2 percent rate savings to have a refinance make sense. Homeowners with larger mortgage balances could achieve sufficient cost savings with a 1.5 or 1 percent rate drop.
Figure out how long it may take for your refinance to pay for itself. To do this, divide your mortgage closing costs by the monthly savings your new mortgage will get you. If you're paying $5,000 in closing costs but you'll save $200 per month as a result of refinancing, it will take you 25 months to break even.
A general rule of thumb is to refinance when interest rates drop 2 percentage points or more. For example, if you have a $100,000, 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage at 10 percent, you will pay more than $215,000 in interest over the next 30 years.
Saving $100 per month, it would take you 40 months — more than 3 years — to recoup your closing costs. So a refinance might be worth it if you plan to stay in the home for 4 years or more. But if not, refinancing would likely cost you more than you'd save. ... Negotiate with your lender a no closing cost refinance.
Experts often say refinancing isn't worth it unless you drop your interest rate by at least 0.50 to 1 percent. But that may not be true for everyone. “Say you are refinancing from an adjustable rate to a 0.25 percent lower fixed rate. ... A quarter-point rate drop may also benefit someone with a large principal borrowed.
The mortgage rates trend continued to decline until rates dropped to 3.31% in November 2012 — the lowest level in the history of mortgage rates.
Taking on new debt typically causes your credit score to dip, but because refinancing replaces an existing loan with another of roughly the same amount, its impact on your credit score is minimal.
A Longer Break-Even Period
One of the first reasons to avoid refinancing is that it takes too much time for you to recoup the new loan's closing costs. This time is known as the break-even period or the number of months to reach the point when you start saving.
Refinancing doesn't reset the repayment term of your loan, but it does replace your current loan with a new loan. You may be able to choose from different offers for your new loan depending on your goals, including a longer or shorter repayment term.
Generally, the cost of a mortgage point is $1,000 for every $100,000 of your loan (or 1% of your total mortgage amount). Each point you purchase lowers your APR by 0.25%. For example, if your rate is 4% and you buy one point, your APR rate would go down to 3.75% for the life of the loan.
Mortgage refinancing is not always the best idea, even when mortgage rates are low and friends and colleagues are talking about who snagged the lowest interest rate. This is because refinancing a mortgage can be time-consuming, expensive at closing, and will result in the lender pulling your credit score.
Although the difference in monthly payment may not seem that extreme, the 1% higher rate means you'll pay approximately $30,000 more in interest over the 30-year term.
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