Yes. Choices are---refinance and stay for 3-5 years. Or sell and move away, leaving a child behind with his dad.
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Yes. Choices are---refinance and stay for 3-5 years. Or sell and move away, leaving a child behind with his dad.
So you will re-finance, why bother asking ?
Unless you're willing to sell, I suggest not refinancing for more than you actually owe (IE don't borrow against equity) to at least lower your rates for the time being until you're ready to head out of there.
Refinance normally is for if you're staying their, nothing emotional about it. The decision to sell or not is the emotional one.Quote:
Originally Posted by GGT
The decision to refinance or not is (or ought to be) a purely financial decision?
Oh God, I never considered that (borrowing against equity) was on the table.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dreadnaught
Honestly it's not the worst idea if one has a worthwhile purpose for it - say, expanding a business, or paying off higher interest debt. Rates are very low right now, and assuming one is not cutting too deeply into one's equity (say, leaving at least 20% of the house paid for), why not? There's an interest write-off, and there's plenty of higher-yielding options out there for some people.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hazir
I wouldn't personally do it unless I had a damned good reason for it, but I don't find it an automatically poor suggestion.
Yeah, to sell or not is the emotional part. If I could decide whether to sell now or wait a few years (and who knows what the real estate market is going to look like then) then refinancing would be an unnecessary step, or putting that cash into getting the house "show-ready". I could sell and rent, but would have to remain in the school district, so my son could stay in the same school. If not, then he'd have to live with his dad and step mom, which he doesn't want to do....Quote:
Originally Posted by RandBlade
I am clearly missing something here, what would be the purpose of refinancing?
Well, it would save me some money every month. The "costs" of refinancing mean I'd have to stay in this home for about five years to recoup the fees and charges added, rolled into the new mortgage. (No, I'm not trying to refinance my equity, just the amount of the remaining mortgage). Refinancing could protect me if the real estate market continues to tank, and I couldn't sell. In that case, I could live here longer.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hazir
But my goal is to move away from here.....
We just refinanced our mortgage, dropped a point and a half and made it a 15 year loan instead of 30 (we were down to 22-23 years left)
Still saves us a TON of money and paid off by the time I'm 55 instead of 62.
AND our Credit Union is offering to refinance at ANOTHER point less and make it a 10 year loan...we are seriously thinking about it.
How long do you think the mortgage interest deduction will last? If it won't last much longer (and I personally don't think it should), then should I pay off the mortgage, or sell and move?
It would take five years...but that doesn't matter as much if you're not underwater on your home. Are you?Quote:
Originally Posted by GGT
Not underwater, nope. Great deal of equity, at least according to the appraisal and comps. I made sure my mortgage was less than half the purchase price.
In case case, unless the closing costs are monstrous, I'd suggest forgetting about them. The costs will effectively come off your future sale price and, if they aren't a huge proportion of that price, it's not worth worrying about them when the monthly savings could at least make the next few years more comfortable.
Ok so we're really only talking about the how long it will take you to recuperate the closing costs with the monthly lower interest paid?
S'pose that's right, but weighing emotional costs against financial ones complicates the matter. :(
The property taxes are a huge unknown, too. They were proposed to go up another 3% but there was a little tax payer revolt, so 1.5% was the compromise. Been here 9 yrs and they've almost doubled since we moved in....