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Term Extension On Home Loan Refinancing
Sometimes due to bad credit or market conditions, it is not possible to get lower monthly payments on your home loan by refinancing. This is due to the fact that those with bad credit usually can not get a lower interest rate and that sometimes, market conditions push the mortgage loans interest rate up. However, you can still get lower installments by refinancing your loan with a longer repayment program.
The term extension will get you lower monthly payments because the loans capital is spread over a higher number of installments. With this method, if you could not afford your current mortgage loans monthly payments, you can obtain lower and affordable installments that you will be able to pay without having to make sacrifices.
Home Loan Repayment Programs
The home loan repayment program or schedule is the duration in time of the home loan. It determines the number of installments you will need to pay throughout the whole life of the loan. Payments can be done one a monthly basis, on a weekly basis, or biweekly too. Depending on the way payments are done and on the duration of the loan, you will obtain the resulting number of monthly payments.
For example: if a home loan has a 10 year repayment program, you will have 120 installments to repay the loan if payments are made monthly. But if payments are made biweekly, you will have 240 installments that will of course be of a lower amount than in the case of the loan payable on a monthly basis.
A mortgage loan repayment program can be as long as 30 years. However, the average mortgage loan has duration of 20 years or just a bit more. Thus, if you need to obtain lower monthly payments, it is always possible to refinance your home loan in order to extend the repayment schedule and thus, obtain a lower installment in return.
Consequences of Extending the Loan Term
The consequences of extending the loan term are varied, some of them are positive and others are negative. Thus, you will need to ponder them in order to decide whether home loan refinancing for a longer repayment program is the right option for you. Basically you will need to compare the resulting terms with your needs in order to see if the costs of refinancing are equal or lower than the benefits.
Ultimately, by refinancing for a longer repayment program, you will obtain lower and more affordable monthly payments. If you are lucky enough to refinance with a lower interest rate, you might be able to compensate the higher costs that a longer repayment schedule represents with the savings that a lower interest rate provide, or at least part of them.
This is due to the fact that when you refinance for a longer repayment program you are actually adding interests to your overall loan repayment. Since interests are based on time, a longer repayment program implies more interests and thus an overall larger debt. Even if you obtain lower monthly payments, you are actually paying more on the long run. It is just that the costs are spread over more installments.
Refinance Your Home Loan-Some Useful Advice (Page 1 of 2)
To say that hundreds of thousands of Americans are struggling to keep up with their mortgage payments in the midst of the current housing market crisis would not be an exaggeration by any means. Foreclosure statistics at present are nothing short of alarming, and families continue to lose their homes at a very saddening rate.
Should you find yourself in a similar position, burdened by the weight of a mortgage commitment that you are battling to cope with, one option which may well be worth your consideration is home loan refinancing. Home loan refinancing is not the ideal solution for everyone, but it can certainly result in circumstances that are easier to manage and maintain in a number of cases.
When is refinancing appropriate?-There are various situations in which refinancing your home loan is worthy of consideration. In cases where an adjustable-rate mortgage is in operation and the interest rate has reset to a higher rate than the initial low rate, it may be a good time to refinance. The good thing about adjustable-rate mortgages is that the interest rate can be tweaked over the loan term. That can be advantageous at times when rates are in decline. However, it is important to bear in mind that you may still be paying more each month in spite of this flexibility than you would be with a fixed-rate mortgage. It depends on what interest rates are doing at any given point in time.
Considering the cost factor-When seriously contemplating the refinancing of your home loan, it’s important to consider how long you realistically see yourself living in your home. Closing costs associated with mortgage refinancing can often run into the many thousands of dollars. You need to think about what period of time it would take for you to break even again.
For example, consider a situation where a 1% drop in the interest rate would lower your mortgage payment by one hundred dollars. That represents a significant saving for many people. However, if the closing costs associated with your loan refinancing add up to three thousand dollars, it means that it will take a period of 30 months before you recover the cost. This is less of an issue if you know that you will be living in your current home for many years to come. The converse is also true of course. If you feel that there’s a strong chance that you would be moving in the next 2-4 years, then that refinancing option begins to look less attractive.
The equity in your home-Another important factor to bear in mind is how much equity you have in your home at the time you are thinking about refinancing. Most lenders will not entertain the idea of refinancing if there is less than twenty percent equity in your home. While it’s true that having an equity amount below twenty percent does not necessarily disqualify you, it does mean that you will not receive the best rate possible.
Furthermore, if you’ve been living in your home for quite some time and have accumulated a significant amount of equity, you may well be able to save even more by refinancing an amount that is significantly smaller than the initial loan that you qualified for. At the end of the day, that means more money in your pocket at the end of the month.