We just did.. Went down from 5.95% to 3.45% . I must have been sleeping as I didn't realize the rates dropped so much from what I had about 6 yrs ago. I guess it was even at 2.9% at one point. But we are saving almost 300$ a month on payments including paying off a car we owed . The total cost was about 2200$ of that about half was origination fee which can be written off next year on taxes . I didn't even realize my house equity had increased as much as it did .. Anyone buy a house or refi recently ? What rate did u get?
I was thinking about it. I put 10% down on my house and it has appreciated over 10% in the last 2 years so I have 20% equity but since my loan was sold to Freddie Mac I can't use the appreciation amount as equity to get rid of mortgage insurance (PMI).
So if I refinance I can go with a place that will allow appreciation to make up the rest of the 20% so I wouldn't have to pay insurance. My PMI is about $85/month. I would end up paying fees to refinance like you did so I would have to calculate how many months of not paying PMI would make up for the fees.
$2,100 in total closing costs is really low. And you're right the origination is a write off. A good piece of advce I always tell people is that if you make just 1 extra mortgage payment to be applied towards principal a year, it will reduce your 30 year term by 8 years. That's your mortgage payment x 96 months. Lot of money.
