Refi anyone?

[Mikey]

Mortgage rates seem to be going down, down, down today.

I just locked in a 30 year fixed rate of 4.66% - bought the rate down by about 0.3% by paying one point. We may not be at the bottom but to me this is a very good rate and will lock in a payment that we hopefully will be able to afford into retirement.

We took out an interest-only refi about four years ago before our daughter started college, in order to minimize our monthly payment. It was fixed for 10 years at 5.5% and then would become fixed at the going rate for a 30 year amortization. We were very afraid of what might happen when the adjustment came around.

We now have committed to about a $200 per month increase but we're paying down the principal and it's still very affordable since the OL went back to work a year and a half ago.

How far do you think rates will go? We've been waiting to get a good deal and feel that this is exactly what we were looking for.

[War Wagon]

We may not be at the bottom but to me this is a very good rate and will lock in a payment that we hopefully will be able to afford into retirement.

Into retirement? What does that mean? Before, after, or semi?

Myself, I don't plan on having a mortgage payment after I retire, but then again, I'll probably be dead before then, so it really doesn't matter.

If by some reason I manage to cheat fate and the actuarial tables, I damn sure don't want to have a mortgage.

It looks like you got over though, Mikey.

Props on your good credit.

[Mikey]

I'm not planning on retiring any time soon. I won't be 65 for another 12 years and at the rate I've been fucking up my investments over the past 8 years I may not be retiring then either. But when I do I want to be able to keep the house. The wife will prolly want to move to a condo or a mobile home near the beach or a golf course, but with all the work I've put into this place I want to be able to kick back and enjoy it for a while. And I want to start seriously growing my own food, which I haven't really had time for up till now. Anyway, with the payment we have locked in now I'll be able to make it with my social security alone, assuming it's still available by then.

[KC Scott]

Mortgage rates just hit another new low this week:

http://money.cnn.com/2009/03/26/real_es ... /index.htm

[Mikey]

I found out on Friday, after the appraisal came in, that my lender won't close while our kitchen renovation is ongoing. We have an estimated completion of 4/24 and a 60 day rate lock until 5/14. The contractor better come through on time or I will be one very pissed off customer.

[smackaholic]

And I want to start seriously growing my own food,

I suggest you stop seriously eating your own food first, tubby. Tomatoes must do nice there with warm and sunny about 400 days a year. Make good cover for your mari jew wanna plants also.

Mikey, how much lower could you have gone with a 15 year? We did a 15 about 6 years ago at 4.625 fixed. At the time 30s were over 5. 15s must be damn close to 4 even by now.

[Mikey]

Finally signed the final papers today at 4.67%. Last day of the rate lock, we made it just under the wire after a lot of wailing, gnashing of teeth, yelling, and threatening our kitchen contractor to get the remodel done.

Rates aren't really much higher today, but we would have lost our deposit and had to start the process over if we missed the deadline.

15s are about 0.4% than the 30s lower but we wanted to keep our payments relatively low while locking in the historic fixed 30 year rate. One kid in college and another starting in a year makes a good reason to keep the payments down. That's why we went with the fixed interest only loan about 4 years ago, but we decided we didn't want to see our payment skyrocket in 10 years when the fixed term ran out. Our payment is only going up by about $100 and we are now locked in and paying on the principal with a payment that's still affordable.

With this deal I'm 99.9% sure we will never refinance again.

[battery chucka' one]

We got a 4.5% in March on a fifteen year mortgage. With paying extra and such, we should have the mortgage knocked out in about 8 years.