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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Holy mortgage rates! All time lows!
I thought we did a rate modification at the all time low but today it is 3% for a 15 year and 3.875% for a 30 year.
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Re: Holy mortgage rates! All time lows!
Mommy to Stephanie Lena - 2.13.07 and Evan Ralph - 9.23.10
Angel Baby (m/c at 9 weeks) - 1.2.09
Christmas Card Picture - 2011
(aka: the only picture I could get of them together that was not blurry and had them both sitting still!)
Click here for My Bio
The Stephanie Song...click here to listen!
Not a newbie, but, had to create a new account - formerly LBR_NJ
My Blog - "Helping Make Sense"
I feel you! I totally feel you!
The Journey of Me
Vacation, 2011
Whoever tells you to short sell or walk away is an idiot.
I know...we're not taking their advice. Our own mortgage company actually told us that we should just get another house. DH asked them how would we be able to do that since we would never be able to sell this one. The woman he was speaking to actually told him we would be able to get a 2nd mortgage on a new house and then we could just walk away from this one. He hung up on her.
NO there aren't really downsides other than you might have to pay some fees and pay for an appraisal. The problem a lot of people run into is say the balance on their mortgage is 300k, the appraisal only comes back at 250k so basically they can't refi because their house is not worth what they owe. Does that make sense?
Also, in order for it to make sense to refi, the new rate should be 1.5% under the current rate on the mortgage (unless you're going from a 30 to a 20 or 15 year, then it doesn't have to be as much of a gap)
Same here. We bought about 4 years ago, and now we are under water.
We are in the process of re-fi-ing now. We had to schedule another appraisal (the last one was more than 30 days ago). It's depressing to think how much less my house is worth than it was a month ago and paying more money for another appraisal. It's all a racket! Luckily we are able to re-fi but we are putting a big chunk of money into all the fees/closing costs etc that won't even be going into the new loan. But we will be saving $500 a month in the long run, ultimately getting rid of PMI. The whole thing sucks all around though. I hope others who can't re-fi can find a solution to their problems as well. F the housing market....or is that FTHM!!!.....hehehehe...
Mommy to Stephanie Lena - 2.13.07 and Evan Ralph - 9.23.10
Angel Baby (m/c at 9 weeks) - 1.2.09
Christmas Card Picture - 2011
(aka: the only picture I could get of them together that was not blurry and had them both sitting still!)
Click here for My Bio
The Stephanie Song...click here to listen!
WHAT?!?!?!?!?!
for us our house did not appraise so we had to pay the difference to refinance. even with doing that we still saved a TON of money each month and we alraedy had a great rate
if your underwater in your house than you can't
and there are closing costs to a refi just like a regular house closing. our broker credited us all of our closing costs so that was ANOTHER reason why we chose to do it.
but when called our current mortgage company to see their rates we would have had to pay closing costs and two other companies we cold called said the same thing
Why not? And please, if that's too personal, of course ignore me! I'm just trying to figure out why people aren't getting approved.... and I mean, people like you & Steve. (Good steady jobs, assuming a good payment history, etc.) Is it because you're underwater on the house?
In our case, we don't have enough equity in our house any longer- and only certain banks are doing rate modifications! It sucks ass and is really annoying! There are programs that banks can do, for rate mods, issues with equity and such, but the big banks aren't doing them, although they will tell you they are, but they are really not- SUCKS!
The Journey of Me
Vacation, 2011
I'm on with them right now actually.
Oh wait, they just hung up on me. Frick.
Anyway, when we bought we took out two mortgages to avoid PMI (which was all the rage in 2006). We owe just a smidge more then our house is worth but what was just explained to me was that because we have the two loans our combined loan to value ratio is over 95%.
What that means I have no idea. But what it boils down to is that Citi isn't willing to do any kind of loan/rate modification for us. A home owners assistance person told me we could modify the terms of our loan, but it could affect our credit score and is basically like an ARM. We wouldn't qualify anyway because I'm sure we make too much.
For us (at least right now and hopefully this won't ever change) it has nothing to do with not being able to make our monthly payments. I just want to lower my interest rate. Our rate is 6.5% on our first and 8 something % on our second. It makes me physically ill to know that we could be saving HUNDREDS each month if we refinanced but that we can't because our house isn't worth enough. I'm willing to pay the closing costs because it would absolutely make more sense, but we're stuck.
It sucks huge donkey balls.
This is us as well. We bought a teeny tiny TH with the intention of staying maybe 3 years, max 5, and then buying a single family house. Yeah. That's not happening. We just hit 5 years here in November and I can't see going anywhere anytime soon. We outgrew this place as soon as we moved in but we didn't want to overextend. I almost wish we had so we'd have more space. We are beyond cramped.
same here! almost to the tee- only our first rate is not as high- but our second is-
we pay on time, never miss payments, would never walk away etc. but we get NOTHING! However, if you don't pay, or are late, you can get all sorts of help, doesn't quite make sense to me- we took an affordable mortgage it is not the ability to pay- and that is what bothers me- you can not be able to pay and get help making payments less etc, but if you make a decent salary and actually are responsible you get nothing!
The Journey of Me
Vacation, 2011
I feel like an old man yelling at a cloud with this but man, I couldn't agree more. Like you, we are responsible, pay our bills on time, bought an affordable house, make decent salaries (well I will soon, I don't now) and yet we get nothing. Yet people can walk away from their houses, not pay their bills, bought more then they could handle, whatever and they get all kinds of help. How is this fair? It really, really pisses me off.
You guys, that sucks. I'm sorry you're dealing with that.
Sarah, we originally took out a 2nd mortgage too, to avoid PMI, so I get where you're coming from. The last time we re-fi'd was a couple years ago, and I remember the ratio had to be around 75% or better.... meaning, at the end of the process, we couldn't have more than 75% of our house's value in a mortgage. We had to own at least 25% of the value of the house, or more. That's really hard nowadays.... it's why we haven't even bothered calling, even with all these lower rates.
And, not to sound preachy, because I know y'all know this, but those people "walking away" from their houses, they're suffering a huge hit on their credit. I can't even imagine not having credit for however many years until you can fix it.
I know this is true, I do. I just have a hard time seeing it through my frustration.
This is us too. No one wants to to help us because we are able to pay on time each month. Like I said before, we were told our best bet was to walk away from the house or short sell it. Our own mortgage company told us to just walk away. But instead we are responsible and wind up getting screwed. I just want a lower rate. And since we make too much money(that's a joke!!!!), pay on time, and do not have a frannie or freddie loan, we are sh#t out of luck.