Re-financing Question

Absolutely you can refinance with the same mortgage officer. We did that when we moved from a 5/1 to a fixed.

On the one hand, you'd save only $150 per month on a $500K loan, and you'd pay at least a year's worth of that savings to cover the closing costs. (Don't forget all the odds and ends of fees, e.g. to the building's managing agent.)

On the other hand, the savings will add up to $50K or so over the life of the loan, and rates are so low you're unlikely to want to refinance again.

I guess it depends on your annoyance threshold and how long you plan to stay there. If only five or ten years it wouldn't be worth the hassle, but that's just me.

thanks for the quick response. you guys are exactly right - on 500K (which is exactly my amount) it's 150 per month. But right now, I also plan to pay another $50K towards the principal, dropping the total loan to 450K. Based on this, the new monthly payment will be about $450 lower.

What do you think? I know of the 450 difference, about $300 is due to "artificial" lowering. But is it still worth it?

Any help would be again greatly apprciated. THanks so much!

it depends on

1 - if you live in a coop or a condo
2 - if the officer will be able to do a reassignment of the mortgage at a lower rate

as most say "if you are refinancing, you need at least 1% lower and it will be recouped in 5 yrs" this is definitely true for condos and houses. coop closing costs are significantly lower and a reassignment of mortgage will cost you the least in all cases.

it seems that you're at 1/2% lower, that means 10 yrs to recoup if it's a house/condo and you have to pay all of those crazy fees again.

Hi, this is a coop... going from 5.12 to around 4.62... and paying an extra 50k towards principal

my other option is to make the 30 year to 15... which results in a higher monthly pmt of roughly 600 bucks...