You don't have to be a mathematician to figure out whether a refinance would save you money. You'll need to know your total closing costs and your new monthly payment to make an estimate. Let's assume that your mortgage payment is $1250 and you find a lender that will cut your loan payment by $200 a month. That's $2400 a year!
But wait... The new loan comes with a price. It's not unusual for a refinance loan's closing costs to be in the $4000 neighborhood. That's a lot of money. But, the next question is. How many months will it take me to recover my costs of getting the new loan? At a monthly payment savings of $200 a month it would take 20 months to get back to a break-even point in this case.
After the break-even point it all depends on how long you stay in your home. If you were to stay in your home for 60 months or (5) years after the break-even point, you would save $12.000. Not a bad deal!
Refinancing a mortgage isn't cheap and it's not always easy, but when you consider the possible savings, it could be worth your time and effort. Mortgage interest rates rise and fall all the time. A drop of just 1 percent in mortgage interest rates can be enough to make refinancing worthwhile for you.
