Jun
17
I am trying to refinance my mortgages. I have a first mortgage which is fixed at 6.375 % and a second HELOC?
By
which is currently at 8.5 %. I would like to get one fixed mortgage at a lower rate and payment. Can someone please explain to me what a streamline refinance is? I do not want to get any cash out and have always been current with my payments for 2 1/2 years (Never late)
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
4 Comments
June 20th, 2009 at 10:21 am
streamline refinance usually refers to refinancing an existing FHA mortgage into a new FHA mortgage with a lower interest rate or coverting from an ARM to a fixed
combining the two existing mortgages into one mortgage may save you money
the fed just reduced the federal funds rate by 125 basis points this month, which means your HELOC interest rate should drop by 1.25% beginning with your next cycle
the prime rate is the index most HELOC”s are tied to & its directly tied to the federal funds rate, therefore you should see the drop reflected in your rate
June 20th, 2009 at 11:49 pm
Sorry I am not an expert, but would say its not as gloomy as you may think, if you can afford to do this.
Does this mean you want to merge both the loans together just to get a better deal? A simple remortgage woud be best, do not reduce the term.
So you dont want to increase the outstanding amount, you dont want to increase the term of the mortgage?
If you want to do this and you can afford the repayments, it may not be too hard.
Have you managed to build up any equity in your home, it would look better if you have.
Lots of people are refinancing at the moment as they come to the end of their fixed rates, but you need to use a mortgage comparision site to look at the deals on offer.
I have not included a site as I dont know what country your in but you can look it it type in the search enginge
mortgage comparision site.
If you can afford the repayments and have proof of earnings High Street lenders would be prepared to listen to you.
Have you got a good track record of repayments, if not you may need to go to a Broker, but remember Brokers are either tied to a particular set of companies or work on commsion so you may not get the best deal for you, they may be more intrersted in their commision than your wallet.
Be careful about upfront fees, (some are stupid figures like £999) and avoid long tie ins. At the moment the interest rate is going down not up so a few months could mean a difference of 0.25 to 1% you only need to see what has happened to the US interest rates this month to see this, as they fear a recession, and are trying to make repayments more affordable to hard pressed US homeowners.
I am in the UK by the way and antipate the UK rates will see a rate cut every 2/3 months.
This will not be like the Black Monday of the early 1990′s as the interest rates were much higher and peopls borrowing was more inline with affordability, now rates although much lower affordability is still a problem due to the general high price of housing.
June 21st, 2009 at 10:05 pm
Combine bot to a fixed rate 30 year mortgage to lower you rate and payments. Use a service like to get free quotes from multiple lenders that way you know you are getting the best deal. Also, because you will be speaking to ‘experts’ you will get to know what you need to to in order to get the best deal.
June 23rd, 2009 at 3:13 pm
First question: How much is the house worth right now?
Second: How much do you owe on it (both mortgages combined?)
If you owe more than 80% of the value of the home, you won’t be able to refinance right now (banks aren’t lending)
If you owe less than 80%, then you can refinance with a new fixed mortgage.
Streamline refinance:= refinance the house and pay off several debts, so that you have one payment instead of several.