Saturday, June 23, 2007

Mortgage Refinance Rates

Refinancing your existing mortgages has many advantages like lowering the monthly payments or interest rates paid. The latter is in fact one of the most important reasons for opting for refinance. Thus a vital point to be considered while taking a mortgage refinance is mortgage refinance rates.

Mortgage refinance rates depend upon various market factors as well as your personal factors as a borrower. But mortgage refinance rates mainly depend upon the interest accrued on the refinance loan. The mortgage refinance rate is expressed as the Annual Percentage Rate (APR). APR is the total amount of money repayable by the borrower to the lender on a loan, per annum.

It will also depend on the kind of mortgage refinance loan you would choose. The different kind of mortgage refinance options available can be broadly classified on the basis of:

-Fixed mortgage refinance rate: Various fixed rate refinance include 30 year fixed mortgage refinance, 20 year fixed mortgage refinance, 15 year fixed mortgage and 10 year mortgage refinance, etc.

-Adjustable mortgage refinance rate: This category includes 1 year ARM (Adjustable Rate Mortgage), 3/1 ARM refinance, 3/1 interest only ARM refinance, 5/1 ARM refinance, 5/1 ARM interest only refinance, etc.

Few ways by which you can reduce your mortgage refinance rates are:
-Keep a check on your credit score: Your credit history will have a great impact on the mortgage refinance rate you will be offered. Making payments late or missing payments will decrease your credit score. Also, take care to see that you don't use your credit cards and line of credit loans to the maximum credit limit available to you. Doing so will again decrease your credit score. Having a bad credit score will not stop you from availing a mortgage refinance. But the mortgage refinance rate offered to you will be 2% to 6% higher than usual. So try to improve your credit score to get lower mortgage refinance rates.

-Think about paying points: This is one more alternative to lower mortgage refinance rates. One point is equal to one percent of the mortgage amount. For instance, a mortgage loan of $10,000 with 3 points will incur additional $3000 as charges. Higher the points charged to the mortgage, lower will be your mortgage refinance rate. Points can either be paid upfront or financed by the amount from the loan.

-Do your research: As in all other sectors, there is intense competition in the lending sector too. It might make sense to obtain mortgage refinance from your current lender, but they might not necessarily offer you the best mortgage refinance rates. Thus it is wise to compare rates offered by various lenders. And with World Wide Web at your finger tips this should not be a tedious task. Applying online will help you get multiple offers from various lenders. Compare the mortgage refinance rates as well as the services of the lender and then choose the best offer suiting your needs.

To get the best mortgage refinance deal don't compare only mortgage refinance rates but also consider closing costs and redemption penalties.

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