In an old Saturday Night Live gag, the announcer said there’d been no trading on Wall Street because everyone already had the stocks they wanted. At some point, you’d think that would happen to mortgages.
For the week ended Oct. 9, three out of every five mortgage applications involved a refinancing rather than a home purchase, according to Freddie Mac (Stock Quote: FRE). How long until everyone who wants to refinance will have done it? After all, interest rates have been below 6% for most of this year.
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The eagerness to refinance in part comes from borrowers switching from adjustable-rate loans they took out several years ago. As low “teaser” rates expire, monthly payments go up, and homeowners switch to fixed-rate loans that may have lower payments right away and don’t carry the risk of higher ones later.
Another reason: Homeowners appear eager to refinance even if payment reductions are fairly small. They seem to have dispensed with an old rule of thumb that said refinancing paid off only if you could reduce your interest rate by at least two percentage points.
Tools like the Mortgage Refinance Break Even Calculator may be playing a role, making it easier for homeowners to figure the savings from refinancing. In many cases it does make sense to refinance even if the rate will drop less than one percentage point, especially if one is getting the added benefit of moving from an adjustable to a fixed-rate loan. (Only 6.2% of recent mortgage applications involve adjustable-rate loans, the Mortgage Bankers Association says.)
