How to Tell If Refinancing Is a Good Idea
If you’re considering refinancing your home, interest rates aren’t the only factor you should consider.
Homeowners who aren’t happy with their current mortgage have the option to refinance, meaning they replace their mortgage with a new loan. And whenever interest rates drop, there’s a flurry of ads urging homeowners to refinance and take advantage of the lower rates. However, interest rates are only one of the factors you should consider before refinancing your home.
Your plans for the future
If you’re planning to sell your house within the next couple of years, refinancing is rarely a good idea. Every time you refinance, you incur a bundle of fees associated with the new loan. These fees are typically somewhere between 3% to 6% of the loan amount. So even if your new loan is a substantially better deal than the old one, it’ll take a while to break even on all the money you spent on fees.
For example, let’s say you refinanced into a $200,000 loan and paid 5% in fees, or $10,000. Your new loan gives you a monthly payment that’s $400 lower payday loans in NV than your old monthly payment. To figure out how long it will take you to break even, divide the refinance fees (in this case, $10,000) by the amount you’re saving each month with the new loan: $10,000 divided by $400 equals 25, so it’ll take you 25 months to make up the cost of the fees and start saving money. If you were to sell the house 18 months after the refinance, then the new loan would have cost you more money than you’d saved. (mais…)