Archive for the ‘Refinancing Home Mortgage’ Category

Home Mortgage Refinancing: Make Sure It Is Worth Your Effort

Monday, September 14th, 2009

Home mortgage refinancing is worth your effort and time if the resulting refinanced loan helped you avoid foreclosure, if it is sustainable and if it reduces your total home loan costs.

Typically, during the boom times, the main reason for loan refinancing was to take advantage of the home equity. Homeowners refinanced their loans to get a higher principal and then use the extra cash to consolidate other debts, to finance their children’s education, to buy a new car, to pay medical bills or to make other major payments.

During this downturn, loan refinancing has become one of the options for avoiding foreclosure. It is one of the schemes offered by the Obama administration’s Making Home Affordable program for homeowners whose mortgages are owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

Under the Home Affordable Refinance Program, your lender will provide you a copy of its loan refinancing estimate, which shows your new mortgage rate, your new monthly payment and the total amount you are going to pay over the number of years specified for you to pay the loan.

If you compare the new payments and terms and conclude that the refinanced loan is not an improvement over the original loan, then home mortgage refinancing may not be for you.

But do not compare only the monthly payments, especially if your original loan is an adjustable loan mortgage. In ARM refinancing, your monthly loan payment will always increase if you are converting into a fixed higher rate. For you, it would seem that the new rate is higher because you were given a teaser rate or you were given the option to pay only the interest of the loan, but ultimately the fixed higher rate would enable you to sustain your loan.

A loan refinancing for an ARM that is expected to reset to a much higher rate in the next several years is worth it because it will help you sustain payments in the long term. It will also help you cut your interest costs because of the record drop in mortgage rates.

If your home loan is fixed rate and you already have made payments for several years, consider carefully refinancing because you just might be increasing your total loan costs. In home mortgage refinancing, consider whether you are refinancing to a shorter or longer term and whether your refinancing costs will be covered by your savings from refinancing.

Can You Avail of Obama’s Home Refinancing Program?

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

President Barack Obama launched a home refinancing program this year to help homeowners cope with the financial crisis that has hardly hit the country. Since real estate suffered the worst of all the consequences brought about the economic recession, Obama saw that it was imperative to create something that would help troubled homeowners who are dealing with job loss and foreclosure threats.

This project, aimed at protecting homeowners from losing their houses, has criteria for homeowners. Basically, the criteria points to homeowners that are currently troubled and facing threats of losing their homes. If your house reduced in value by around 16 percent, you can take advantage of this plan and refinance to a program that has only around 4 percent in interest rate. How do you know if you qualify? Here are the criteria:

  • Your home mortgage loan should be under Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae.
  • The sum of your loan should me more than 106 percent of the value of your house.
  • Your monthly mortgage payments should be 32 percent of your monthly income.
  • The total of all your credit payments should not be more than 56 percent of your previous tax income.
  • The total equity of your home that you already own is not more than 21 percent.

If you qualify for the program, you can start looking for banks that would help you with your home refinancing. The Obama administration is giving $1,000 cash advantage to banks that would participate in this, so there can be a lot of companies that would give great offers for you.

You can also seek expert advice from counselors from HUD. They can be your representative as you apply for a refinance, giving you the best opportunities to refinance and get the best deal with the lending institutions. Of course, it would also be great if you yourself are in the know about the latest in the real estate market, as well as about home mortgages.

If you are aware of what is happening, you would be able to assert and push for what you deserve. Home refinancing can be the best solution for your current situation. Be informed and start your application as soon as you can.

Mortgage Refinancing Can Solve Your Money Problems

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

Home mortgage refinancing has become a popular option for a lot of homeowners who need to redistribute their income to their everyday needs. With unemployment continuing to injure the country, more and more families have to adjust according to their means. Refinancing is one way for homeowners to free up some cash for other expenses.

There are a lot of other benefits to refinancing, aside from being able to reallocate your finances. For instance, refinancing from a high interest loan to a low interest loan would give homeowners more savings in the coming years.

Refinancing to consolidate all your loans is also a good move, since a lot of lending companies give discounts to borrowers who pay off their loans through them.

It is best to look for home mortgage loans with low interest rates. You can look around and do your own research so that you will be able to evaluate the options for you. You can also talk to the lending companies so that you know the advantages and conditions of a certain loan plan.

As you apply for a refinance, make sure that you know all the costs involved. Do not be lured by advertisements that tell you that there are no costs involved in refinancing with them. It is best to weigh your options and have thorough discussions with the lending company. Ask about each and every cost you have to pay as you start your new loan. Make sure that you understand the terms and conditions. You do not want to end up with a low interest loan but highly expensive closing costs.

Also, as you refinance, plan for what you would do with the money that would be freed up from your previous mortgage obligations. You should be able to budget your finances well, so that you would not end up with more debt in the future.

Much of refinancing depends on your ability to impose discipline on yourself and control your unnecessary purchases.

Also, it would be best to seek expert advice in refinancing your loan. You might not be able to understand a lot of terms and conditions about your refinance, and you night end up signing up and agreeing to things you did not know. The ultimate goal of refinancing is keeping your house while being able to spend for your other needs as well.

No-Cost Home Mortgage Refinancing

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

There are a lot of lending companies that advertise no-cost home mortgage refinancing. However, this may have a different meaning from what you think. Make sure that before you apply for a home mortgage refinancing plan, you understand all the details that go with this mortgage refinancing plan.
There are basically two ways to avoid [...]

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Find Out If You Can Go for Home Mortgage Refinancing

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

Home mortgage refinancing seems to be a very good solution for all troubled homeowners. They can get a better deal and pay for a less amount monthly for their home mortgage.
If you are looking at home mortgage refinancing, then you should consider whether or not you are eligible. The Obama administration is currently at [...]

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Mortgage Refinancing Program Expands

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

After seeing that the initial mortgage refinancing plan of the administration was quite insufficient, President Barack Obama launched an expansion of the program. The new program would allow borrowers who have home mortgage loans that are valued at 125 percent of the value of their home to refinance into loans that are more affordable. Before, [...]

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Mortgage Refinancing Rates Higher on Jumbo Loans

Thursday, July 23rd, 2009

Why is it that jumbo loans have high interest rates? How would this affect applying for home mortgage refinancing? At this time when a lot of houses are getting low prices and more and more statistics are showing signs of economic recovery, how do you know what to do with your loan?
Specifically, how does [...]

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Insurers May Help in Home Mortgage Refinancing

Friday, July 17th, 2009

There are a lot of homeowners who are seeking to refinance. Home mortgage refinancing seems to be the most popular solution now for different homeowners who are facing different problems in their home mortgages. With this, troubled homeowners can actually find solution from private home insurers.
Generally, a house owner would turn to nonprofit organizations [...]

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Reasons to Stay Away from a Home Mortgage Refinance

Thursday, July 9th, 2009

Home mortgage refinancing has a lot of benefits. However, it can also be the opposite. It can work for some homeowners, while for some, it would not. Before you apply for a home mortgage refinance, consider your situation well and gather all the necessary information.
Here are reasons why a home mortgage refinance plan is [...]

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Mortgage Refinancing Truths

Wednesday, July 8th, 2009

It seems that home mortgage refinancing has a lot of secrets that the common homeowner does not know. Good thing that there have been resources for everyone available in the Internet, and also with your home mortgage agent. Before you apply for your home mortgage refinancing, find out everything and assess your situation well.
Here [...]

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