What a relief to finish this somewhat arduous process of getting a new mortgage while the rates are low. But you’re thinking, hold on, you’ve been in your house for almost 12 years and didn’t you re-finance it five years ago?
Yes. In 2008, I mostly went with a new mortgage to get a slightly lower rate, I think it was about a point, yet the action was more about having Somara added. When I originally bought the house, we were not married, hence it was mine. The action also freed up $140/month to put toward killing off her third student loan.
This Spring, after I paid the mortgage online with Wells Fargo, I clicked a link to see what kind of deal we’d get now. Amazingly, I received a phone call from somebody in Phoenix within two hours. It just took a while due to a couple things: Wells Fargo lost the survey of the house from last time and my sulfameth allergy put everything on hold for a week.
It’s all over now. Sure there’s a new 30-year loan. The beauty is we got a rate of 3.875% and our P&I is well under $500/month. Our plan remains to pay what we were paying before the refinancing so the closing costs will be eliminated in a year…maybe longer. We owned almost 21% of the house (based upon its original price), now it’s set back to 18.4%. I’m not worried. If we stick with what we were paying, we’ll be making 15 payments/year.
We still made a wise move. Rents in Austin are jumping thanks to my adopted home gaining 70 assholes/day, ergo, 60 cars appearing and 40 Republicans on I-35. Our house payment will be lower than any rent, even with the escrow. My plan is that we can stay put should we both end up working at the nearby HEB.
Next up, no house payment until August 1. The car will be paid off six weeks ahead of the current schedule. I may be able to test drive the Prius C I have my eye on by late Fall!