
Mortgage rates are lower than last year and may help you
Mortgage rates are expected to keep dropping in anticipation of the Federal Reserve meeting in the last week of April, as a result of extremely low builder and buyer confidence in the market, and extremely weak housing starts. Everyone is betting that rates will be cut- yet again. This could be good news for people being squeezed by large mortgage payments looking to refinance, or for families who want to reduce their long term interest burden by moving into a shorter term mortgage. However, financial professionals need to be contacted to determine if the benefits of refinancing will override the costs. Often times, lenders require that points, which translate into dollars, be paid, before a loan can be refinanced. Sometimes, this may make any subsequent interest savings negligible, depending on the length of time required to pay off the loan entirely.