Man vs. Wild personality Bear Grylls can tell you how to survive in the Panamanian jungle. And Rachael Ray can guide you to a delicious home-cooked meal in 30 minutes or less. But who's going to walk you through to the successful close of your refinance mortgage?
Keep tabs on the lending environment
The Mortgage Bankers Association (www.mbaa.org) publishes weekly, monthly, and quarterly reports about the state of the economy and, in particular, the home finance industry. You could spend hours reviewing reports, articles, and press releases that discuss current industry trends, but you might focus on the monthly mortgage finance outlook. The report projects estimated mortgage rates for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages and 1-year Treasury adjustable-rate mortgages. While actual rates are likely to be slightly different, you can still use the estimates to make a rough payment calculation.
Monitoring interest rates
Fannie Mae (www.fanniemae.com), Freddie Mac (www.freddiemac.com), and the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (www.fhlbanks.com) provide a wealth of information on current and historical mortgage interest rates. A few words of caution: Don't try to time the market for the absolute best rate; you might end up waiting indefinitely for a low rate that never materializes. Remember, even the experts can't make accurate predictions about where rates are going.
Crunching numbers
Mortgageloan.com has dozens of calculators to answer all of your refinance-related questions. Compare the costs of two different loan types, calculate APRs, evaluate a cash-out refinance for debt consolidation, determine when you'll break even on a refinance, and much more. While you might hear otherwise, a refinance is always a complicated decision-don't proceed until you're confident that you understand all of the financial consequences.
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