mortgage refinancing

Mortgage applications slowed down in the week before Christmas and increased the week after, while interest rates rose to a seven-month high, then retreated again, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday. Shifts in refinancing were the key factor.

The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to a bargain-basement 4.27% for the week ending Oct. 7, a new record low, Freddie Mac announced Thursday. That's down from the 4.32% rate last week, and way below the 4.87% rate that prevailed at this time last year.

Mortgage applications fell 1.4% in the week ending Sept. 17, dragged down by a decline in the number of applications for loans to purchase houses. Applications for loans to purchase a home dropped 3.3% from a week earlier on a seasonally adjusted basis, The Mortgage Bankers Association said....

With interest rates near historic lows, the banking industry is seeing an increase in mortgage refinancing, although not as many are refinancing as the record level seen before the current economic crisis. Mortgage Bankers Association reports the refinance share of mortgage activity rose to 74.8%...

By any measure, the so-called Home Affordable Refinance Program has been a dismal flop, with only an estimated 200,000 or so distressed homeowners managing to get a permanent mortgage loan modification from their lenders. Not anywhere near the roughly 5 million homeowners the Obama administration...

We keep hearing about all those homeowners who want to get their mortgages refinanced but can't, but we seldom hear much about the wisdom of whether or not you should seek to refinance in the first place. It is not always as cut and dry as it might seem. With that in mind, and courtesy of the Salt...