I'm looking at getting a 15 year refinance for my primary residence. I have the option of getting a 3% rate (3.222% APR). I'm curious if anyone has been watching the interest rates lately and can comment on the market? If I wait it out, do you think the rate will go down half a percent or more within the year, or should I go ahead and capitalize on it now? I'm opting to not go with any points.

2/13/2013 10:57:10 PM

Do it now. Rates are not likely to significantly drop again anytime soon. There has been an increase in subprime mortgages in the last quarter if that tells you anything about what is going on in the housing market.

[Edited on February 13, 2013 at 11:01 PM. Reason : sfdsdf]

2/13/2013 10:59:36 PM

now

let me state this a bit differently,
I would not give you a loan for 3%, the fact that banks will should answer your question

[Edited on February 13, 2013 at 11:28 PM. Reason : ]

2/13/2013 11:25:25 PM

Puttin in application tonight! Thanks guys.

2/13/2013 11:32:08 PM

where are you getting it from? i'm thinking about refinancing for a 15-year fixed, as well

2/14/2013 9:38:06 AM

Do it.

2/14/2013 1:37:13 PM

3% seems a bit high. I refinanced last year@ 2.75% APR

[Edited on February 14, 2013 at 1:45 PM. Reason : .]

2/14/2013 1:45:24 PM

Closing costs?
Origination fee?

2/14/2013 1:48:24 PM

3% is what i got on my prequal letter a few weeks ago as well. FHA loan through BB&T.

2/14/2013 1:58:03 PM

I just locked in at 2 5/8% this week with Wachovia for a 15 year fixed, but they said the rates were going up right now.

[Edited on February 14, 2013 at 9:34 PM. Reason : oops, they're wells fargo now]

2/14/2013 9:09:31 PM

Well I was going to go through with Penfed, but after some research and talking it over with a friend of mine, I may reconsider with Wells Fargo...

[Edited on February 14, 2013 at 9:24 PM. Reason : .]

2/14/2013 9:13:50 PM

f*** wells fargo

2/18/2013 10:30:05 AM

i'm still trying to figure out if it's worth refinancing...i'm still at 4.75%, which was good 5 years ago when i first got the mortgage, but now that i'm down to 80%, i feel like i should look around

2/18/2013 6:39:54 PM

I went from 4.5% to 3 3/8% last fall and it was worth it for me alone to drop PMI (if anyone is paying that). Combined with the rate drop...the payback term was only 1 year.

2/19/2013 10:55:48 AM

^^You can still get 3.25% or better if you refinance now and those "no closing cost" refinances actually work with no closing costs. The catch is that you have to bring two months payments to closing.

2/19/2013 12:29:19 PM

Where are you seeing 3 & 3/8 still?

I'm in the market for a new house and have the 20% to put down, as well as 800+ credit. My only kicker is I don't intend to sell my townhouse on Centennial Campus (lived in it for 9 years), but that will be considered "investment real estate" and I don't have 2 years worth of income related to it, which increases the salary that they want to see.

2/19/2013 1:19:59 PM

I know a guy based out of Greenville handing out no closing cost loans at 3.25% if you are interested PM me and I'll send you his info.

2/19/2013 2:25:47 PM

DO NOT USE WELLS FARGO. that is all.

2/19/2013 6:48:20 PM

i was able to close at 3.25% on a 30 year fixed FHA for my condo...

i don't think rates are going to get any lower.... they're really way too low at it is, but not gonna stop me from taking advantage of it

2/19/2013 7:26:28 PM

Quote :

"DO NOT USE WELLS FARGO. that is all. "

Why not? I have my perspective on them, I am curious about yours.

2/19/2013 8:17:11 PM

Suntrust is awfull as well.

2/20/2013 7:28:18 AM

the other thing is that SECU is my mortgage company...and i trust them

not sure that's worth paying more, necessarily, but not worrying about my loan being sold off to someone else is worth SOMETHING

2/20/2013 8:43:00 AM

Why do you care if it's sold off?

2/20/2013 10:43:33 AM

If you pay your bills on time, you probably won't have to deal with your mortgage owner or servicer after closing. As long as they send you bills and tax documents, you should be fine.

2/20/2013 11:11:13 AM

Quote :

"As long as they send you bills and tax documents, you should be fine"

well, that's the real trick, isn't it?

not difficult to find some horror stories from folks who had their mortages sold off to shitty companies, paid their bill on-time, and still had issues.

[Edited on February 20, 2013 at 11:21 AM. Reason : asdf]

2/20/2013 11:18:22 AM

any of you bought your house before the "crash" of 2008 and had your home appraised recently?

my house originally appraised for several thousand more than i paid (around $5k more, i think)...right now, i have around 80% of the appraisal value left on the loan, and that's great...but, i'm not sure if my house will appraise for what it did in 2008

how accurate are those sites like zillow? or does it vary wildly? i remember checking it when i first bought the house and thinking it was ridiculously low at the time (despite the appraisal and what i paid)...and now it's reporting $10k less than what i currently owe

i wouldn't be surprised it the house appraised for 5-10% less than it did in 2008, but i'm pretty much stuck with my current loan if it appraises at the 20% less that zillow is reporting

or should i just stop thinking about it and go ahead and have it appraised by the lender i'm looking at refinancing with?

3/2/2013 5:55:05 PM

Just bought a house in Alexandria, VA and had to pay about $60k over the Zillow value. Granted the housing market is out of control in nova but it taught me that basically the zillow value means nothing.

3/2/2013 9:45:03 PM

^ i'm sure it does vary by market, but the consensus seems to be that zillow is consistently well below market value...it actually seems like zillow seems to be closer to tax value than market

how do we feel about penfed's 2.5% (0.875 points) 5/5 ARM special? no closing costs, they pay the first payment, no PMI if <=80% LTV, 2% 5-year cap, 5% lifetime cap

https://www.penfed.org/55-ARM-Promotion/?intcid=ad-55ARM-home-mainAd-02212013

3/2/2013 10:05:41 PM

Quote :

"any of you bought your house before the "crash" of 2008 and had your home appraised recently?"

Down 20%

3/4/2013 10:40:01 AM

well, fuckballs

i went ahead and put in the application, anyway...worst that happens is it appraises so low that we won't meet the 90% LTV mark and i'll eat the application/appraisal cost...and stick with my 4.75%

3/4/2013 10:42:50 AM

^If you do a streamlined refinance you don't have to get a new appraisal. That was my understanding at least. I didn't need an appraisal to refinance mine.

3/4/2013 10:59:32 AM

Appraisals are a crap shoot these days.

You can have 3 appraisals done, one can be short, one can be on target, one can be over. Its bullshit the way the bank selects the appraiser (supposedly at random) and if you get a crappy one you really have no recourse.

3/4/2013 11:01:23 AM

that's kinda what i figured, which is i went ahead with it

so now i'll just stress about it (a little, anyway!) until after the appraisal's done

3/4/2013 12:23:28 PM

When I refinanced in June, my house appraised for the exact same value as in August 2007. I live in west Raleigh, outside the beltline.

3/4/2013 12:27:35 PM

I had to get an appraisal but I still don't have to pay pmi even though my refinance was for about 97% of the appraisal.

3/4/2013 1:21:24 PM

^ who with? fixed or ARM?

3/4/2013 1:57:16 PM

Fixed with coastal since I didn't have pmi at the time of the refinance.

3/4/2013 2:20:53 PM

I am now a member of penfed with a $20 donation and a $5 deposit.

Now waiting to hear a response on the re-fi app.

3/4/2013 6:31:22 PM

^ glad to help

though i cheaped out and opted for the $15 donation

3/4/2013 8:47:44 PM

^&^^let me know how it goes... is penfed currently "the best" place to refinance? Do they require an appraisal?

[Edited on March 5, 2013 at 7:59 AM. Reason : ]

3/5/2013 7:58:54 AM

Quote :

"^&^^let me know how it goes... is penfed currently "the best" place to refinance?"

no idea...but i just locked in at 2.5% with 0.75 points (or you can opt for 2.805% without points)...which, worst-case scenario, will take ~3.5 years to break even on (and we plan on being here at least that long)

in addition, there are no closing costs (and you don't pay for the application or appraisal or credit check or anything else), no origination fee, and they "pay" your first month's payment...if you leave before you've had the loan for 3 years, you have to pay all of that back

we're probably going to end up with PMI, which kind of sucks

Quote :

"Do they require an appraisal?"

yeah, unfortunately

to make myself feel better, i checked the zillow estimate for when i bought the house...it was right at 86% of the appraisal value...so if that follows true now, as well, i'll actually only have lost around 4.5% and i'll be fine with the loan since i'll meet the 90% LTV requirement without paying any additional on the principle (which i CAN do, if i want)

this is just the stuff i tell myself to feel better until the actual appraisal is done

3/5/2013 8:39:26 AM

quagmire02, is that rate for a 15 or 30 year?

3/5/2013 9:59:31 AM

Quote :

"we're probably going to end up with PMI, which kind of sucks"

How much?

3/5/2013 10:17:08 AM

^^ 30

^ i'm guessing something around $60/month...though that's purely a guess since we haven't had an appraisal, yet, and everything depends on that

3/5/2013 10:36:37 AM

Not bad considering that sick rate. How bad were the closing costs?

3/5/2013 10:38:39 AM

^ me?

Quote :

"in addition, there are no closing costs (and you don't pay for the application or appraisal or credit check or anything else), no origination fee, and they "pay" your first month's payment...if you leave before you've had the loan for 3 years, you have to pay all of that back"

3/5/2013 10:40:39 AM

Is there a prepayment penalty?
I haven't been following this thread too closely. What is penfed?

3/5/2013 11:13:44 AM

Pentagon Federal Credit Union

I use their 5% gas/3% groceries/1% everything else credit card as my primary for a while.

They also offer 1.5% 1.74% new and used auto loans at the moment, up to 60 months.

3/5/2013 11:29:06 AM

penfed is pentagon federal credit union (http://www.penfed.org/), which is generally aimed toward military personnel (including civilians)...they allow non-military to join with a one-time $15 or $20 donation (depending on the charity/group)

does refinancing with someone else count as "prepayment"? i should probably know these things, but i don't

if it does, then the only penalty is (i think) if you do it within 3 years, at which point you owe the costs/fees associated with start of the loan...after that, there is no penalty (or so was my understanding)

https://www.penfed.org/55-ARM-Promotion/?intcid=ad-55ARM-home-mainAd-02212013

this is an 5/5 ARM (2% cap per adjustment and 5% lifetime), mind you...i mentioned it at the very beginning, but only once, so i should probably mention it again

given the circumstances (no origination fee, no closing costs, they pay the first payment, low interest rate for at least 5 years, etc), i'm not concerned about it being an ARM...i'll avoid any penalties by keeping it for the first 5 years and if it looks like 4.5% (assuming max increase) is stupid high, i'll just find another option

but even then, unless something crazy happens, 4.5% probably won't be too bad and i have all the money saved at the beginning to cushion it

3/5/2013 11:29:06 AM

I'm at 4.0 right now. <3 would be quite tempting. Did you ever refi synapse?

" Borrower will receive PenFed credit card reward points equivalent to 10% of the 5/5 ARM mortgage loan amount."

[Edited on March 5, 2013 at 11:33 AM. Reason : ]

3/5/2013 11:30:30 AM