Home Loan Refinance When is a Good Time to Refinance a Home Loan

Walter Shkolnik
If you have a home loan, and you think that your property went up in value by ten percent or more since your took out that loan, you might be a good candidate to refinance. It can save you money on your mortgage payments; improve your terms, or both. Here is why:

When you take out a home loan, bank uses your home as collateral for the loan. The more expensive the collateral is, the lower the bank’s risk that you will default on the loan and walk away from that collateral. So, if over the years, the collateral grows in value, bank’s risk is reduced and therefore you should be able to qualify for a lower rate. If your home went up in value by ten percent or more, banks will consider your home loan to be a less risky investment, and therefore should be able to offer you a lower rate. This is assuming that you kept the same job and income, made all of your payments on time, and market interest rates are the same or lower.

Lower interest rate can benefit you in several ways. You can either refinance and lower your monthly payments, or refinance into a shorter loan term, which means you would be making the same monthly payment, but you would pay off your home sooner. For example, if you have a 30 year fixed loan, you could refinance it at a lower rate in to a 25 or even 20 year loan, and keep your payments about the same.

Before deciding to refinance your home loan, you need to consider the cost of doing the refinance, and then compare it to savings. If it is costing you $5,000 to refinance, and your savings are only $25 per month, it is not worth it because it would take you over 16 years to just brake even. But if your savings are $250 per month, or 5 years worth of mortgage payments, it is probably a good idea to refinance you home loan at that time.

Walter Shkolnik is a Loan Consultant employed by Express Capital Funding Group, www.expfunds.com. He has over ten years of experience Financing Real Estate transactions.
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