Refinancing

Continuing declines in fixed interest rates prompted a 9.2 percent increase in mortgage applications last week, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Wednesday. Most of the increase came, however, from refinancing. The percentage of loans for refinancing increased to 74.9 percent from 72.1 percent the previous week. The percentage of mortgages for buying a house fell 2.4 percent from the previous week. Fewer adjustable-rate loans were originated last week, falling to 5.4 percent from 5.7 percent of all applications.

The rush to refinance home mortgages will not only continue well into 1992, it is likely to accelerate, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association of America. Last year, 1.5 million homeowners refinanced their mortgages, and 3 million are expected to do so in 1992, the trade group said last week. Those estimates, for all mortgage lenders, are based on the MBA's weekly survey of about 20 large mortgage companies. The trade group said it was taking an average of 50 days from application to closing a loan, up from 30 days before the current boom in refinancing started.

Refinancing your mortgage? Fine, but time it right. Getting your house reappraised so you can cancel private mortgage insurance? Good idea, but call the lender before calling an appraiser. If you don't attend to details and communicate with the lender, you could waste money, from a little to a lot. Here is a little-known way that you can trip up - and how to save money or avoid spending it needlessly. When you refinance your mortgage with another lender, you almost always pay at least a day or two of overlapping interest on both loans.

The Lumberton school board is hoping to save $1.1 million by taking advantage of lower interest rates and refinancing its lease-purchase agreement on the district's two-year-old Middle School on Eayrestown Road. David Thompson, president of Cypress Securities of Cherry Hill, said yesterday that his company was acting as the underwriter on a transaction to change the interest rate the district is paying on its certificates of participation, which are similar to bond notes, from 7.7 percent to 5.25 percent.

Township residents will have the chance to follow the lead of homeowners nationwide Tuesday when they vote on whether to cash in on lower interest rates by refinancing $17.1 million in school bonds. Officials estimate that if the measure passes, the township could save between $6 million and $7 million over the next 17 years. In 1990, the township borrowed $19 million to pay for renovations and additions to the high school, the middle school and three elementary schools - work that is now largely complete.

Hurry. It's time to save big bucks by refinancing your home mortgage. Quick, grab the newspaper or loan guide and find the lowest interest rate. That's the key to saving the most on monthly payments. But homeowners who only study rates could be in for a rude surprise. They might end up with a 1-year adjustable rate mortgage at 5.5 percent interest. On a $100,000 ARM loan, the monthly payment would be only $568, or $200 less than a fixed-rate loan at 8.5 percent. Great deal, huh?

The interest rate on my home mortgage is above 11 percent, so I think I should refinance. But I looked into getting a new mortgage from several local lenders and I learned they want to charge me for a new appraisal (my loan is only about three years old), new title insurance and new loan fees. Is there any way I can save on these costs of refinancing? Yes. Most major mortgage lenders and finance providers, such as VA, FHA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, have special "streamlined" refinancing programs.

A lot of responses came in to a recent "humor in refinancing" column, offering similar experiences. I'm not picking on Wells Fargo today - you can substitute your own lender's name. It's just that these borrowers' experiences with Wells fit into the "what-a-hoot" category, provided by folks able to keep their senses of humor, and the column to which they refer was about Wells Fargo. Patricia Cetrone talked about her recent search for a lower interest rate on her home mortgage.

I stopped at Cohen's Hardware at Fifth Street and Passyunk Avenue recently. While owner Mitchell Cohen was ringing up my hose washers, I remembered that he had e-mailed me a while back about a problem with refinancing his mortgage. "Did you ever get the refi?" I asked. He wondered how I knew, so I identified myself. Cohen said he was, indeed, able to refinance his home loan, but it wasn't easy, even for an established businessman who pays loans, bills, and suppliers regularly and on time.

The Marple Newtown school board will vote tonight on the refinancing of the district's two existing bond issues and the borrowing of additional money for capital improvements. The district now maintains about $6.5 million in debt from two bond issues underwritten in 1986 and 1989 by Dolphin & Bradbury Inc., a Philadelphia investment firm. Officials had expressed interest in June in refinancing the issues at an interest rate lower than the 6.7 percent existing rate and borrowing an additional $1.5 million, and asked Dolphin & Bradbury to prepare several bond-restructuring proposals.

Continuing declines in fixed interest rates prompted a 9.2 percent increase in mortgage applications last week, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Wednesday. Most of the increase came, however, from refinancing. The percentage of loans for refinancing increased to 74.9 percent from 72.1 percent the previous week. The percentage of mortgages for buying a house fell 2.4 percent from the previous week. Fewer adjustable-rate loans were originated last week, falling to 5.4 percent from 5.7 percent of all applications.

Government-owned, taxpayer-funded trash-to-energy plants in Harrisburg and Camden County have fallen many millions below the financial projections of the people who sold them years ago. It's not that ugly in Montgomery County, but even there, towns are burning less trash than expected: Moody's Investors Service this week cut its credit rating for Montgomery County Industrial Development Authority's $34 million 2002 bond issue, which is...

The son of U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah, whose political-consulting business is already under FBI investigation, has been sued for failing to repay a $56,000 bank loan. Chaka Fattah Jr. received the loan Dec. 30 from United Bank, apparently a refinancing of another United loan from earlier in the year, bank documents show. But he failed to make any payments, according to the suit, and the bank filed its collection case just 12 days after the FBI served search warrants at a law office where Fattah Jr. worked and at his apartment in the Residences at the Ritz Carlton in Center City.

WASHINGTON - The average rate on the 30-year mortgage edged down this week to hover again above record lows. Cheaper rates have spurred modest improvements in the battered housing market, but not enough to signal a recovery. Mortgage rates have been below 4 percent for more than three months. That has made home-buying and refinancing more attractive for those who can qualify. Home sales have improved and the four-week average of home-purchase applications was up a smidge last week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Freddie Mac said that 85 percent of borrowers refinancing mortgages in the fourth quarter either maintained about the same amount or lowered principal balance by paying in money at closing - a 26-year high. Those borrowers who increased their loan balance through refinancing by at least 5 percent by cashing out equity represented 15 percent of all refinance loans, the lowest percentage in the 26 years, Freddie Mac said. Borrowers reduced rates by a median of 1.4 percentage points, or a savings of about 26 percent in 30-year interest rate.

The housing industry has been appealing for a coherent policy that will end the market's five-year-old downturn and get real estate moving. What President Obama offered Tuesday night in his State of the Union address, though welcomed by many, does not appear to be all the industry had in mind. The President proposed to allow up to four million homeowners to refinance into loans guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration, an action Obama said would save individuals an average of $3,000 annually.

By Daniel Akst For a long time, everyone knew that Greece was never going to pay all its debts; they were just too large. Lo and behold, Europe's leaders put their heads together and announced a plan to have banks accept 50 cents on the euro for them. There's a lesson for us Americans in all this, but it's not about profligacy. We all know that lesson full well by now: It's that we're not going to pay all our debts either. This will seem shameful to some of us and justifiable to others, given the policies and practices that led to so much debt in the first place, and the big-money bailouts that followed.

WASHINGTON - Today's record-low mortgage rates are out of reach for millions of U.S. homeowners who would benefit from them most. One in four homeowners with a mortgage - 11 million people - owe more than their home is worth. These "underwater" borrowers have virtually no shot at refinancing and their plight is a drag on the housing market and the broader economy. The Obama administration is hoping at least 1 million of these borrowers will take advantage of its refinancing program under more lenient rules unveiled Monday.

Fixed mortgage-interest rates are down to a record 4.09 percent, Freddie Mac reported Thursday - something that doesn't appear to mean much to many Americans these days, because few people are buying houses. The low fixed rates do, however, offer a good opportunity to refinance your current home loan. With lenders remaining tight-fisted, home values continuing to decline, and appraisals often falling well below borrower expectations, refinancing sometimes can be a long and difficult process.

Would you refinance your car loan to save a Jackson each month on your payment? Over time, the savings could add up to a couple of Benjamins for a full year for many car owners. But is it worth it? Credit unions, as well as some banks, are promoting the idea of car-loan refinancing. It sounds intriguing now that used-car loan rates are at attractive, single-digit lows and people are looking to save some coin wherever they can to cope with gas at almost $4 a gallon and rising food prices.