We have been trying to refinance the mortgage on our main home since March. We were unable to do it then because the appraisal came back "low." We owe a little less than $220k on the house and it appraised at $240k. Apparently the closing costs were going to put us over the 95% ltv ratio. So, we decided to wait six months and try again. Then the housing crisis became full-blown. We decided to wait another month or two to see what would happen. We reapplied with a different mortgage broker this time and it seems that our house is now worth $250k and we will be closing next Thursday. Actually, this seems to have worked out better for us. If we had refinanced earlier in the year our interest rate would have been close to 7%, but now it is at about 5.5%, and our closing costs will be less with this broker (around $1300). However, because it is the end of the year and taxes are due, we will be required to pay our property taxes at closing. I had hoped to roll the property taxes (about $5300) into the closing costs so that I could put that money into the 'just in case' fund for Y's adoption, but the FHA just changed their requirements from a maximum of 95% ltv to a maximum of 90% ltv. The broker called me on Friday and told me the news. He said he would do everything he could to allow us to bring as little as possible to closing, but to expect to bring between $5-6k just in case. Maybe he can work out rolling the taxes into the loan and we could just bring the rest of the closing costs to the table. We'll see.
At least we won't be paying interest on an additional $5k for 30 years. That should save us at least $10k over the life of the loan.
Natalie
TX
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