Home | Newsletter | Advertise
loading...

18% of Homeowners Will Refinance this Year

  • March 25th 2009

by Mark Wellborn

18% of Homeowners Will Refinance this Year: Figure 1

Because of historically low interest rates, 18 percent of all U.S. households with mortgages will refinance this year, according to The Wall Street Journal. Jay Brinkmann, chief economist of the Mortgage Bankers Association said that rates for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages are likely to be in the 4.6 percent to 4.75 percent range through the summer.

So how much could a home owner save by refinancing? From The Journal:

“For a person with a $230,000 mortgage, refinancing to a 4.75% rate from 6% would yield savings of about $180 a month, Mr. Brinkmann said. But the best rates aren’t available to all borrowers; higher costs apply to those with credit scores that are average or below, and those with high debts in relation to home values.”

Brinkmann estimates that 9.5 million households will refinance their mortgages this year. To put that in perspective, the total number of households with mortgages in the U.S. is about 52 million.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/18_of_homeowners_will_refinance_this_year/712.

DC Real Estate Guides

Short guides to navigating the DC-area real estate market

We've collected all our helpful guides for buying, selling and renting in and around Washington, DC in one place. Start browsing below!

First-Timer Primers

Intro guides for first-time home buyers

Red Flags Revealed During a Home Inspection Top 5 Tax Breaks For Homeowners Tax Relief for DC Homeowners
Condo Fee Tutorial What is a Rent Back? 10 Ways To Tell If a Home Renovation is Well Done
Obtaining a Basic Business License For Your Rental What is an Adjustable Rate Mortgage? The Splitting the Rent Formula
How Much Cash Do You Need to Buy a House? Is This Condo Building Financially Healthy? Interest Rates and Mortgage Points
The Scoop on Mortgage Insurance

Unique Spaces

Awesome and unusual real estate from across the DC Metro

The Most Intriguing Loft in DC The R Street Firehouse DC’s One-Room House
Dupont Circle’s Old Frat House To Become Alley Home Best Transition From a Garage To a Home The Roundhouse
Tilden Gardens Restaurant-Turned-Home Hits Market Next Week Logan Circle’s Most Intriguing Garage Frank Lloyd Wright Goes Green in Kensington
Sears Bungalow Gets a Modern Makeover Old Town General Store Becomes Three-Level Home Making the Most of a Skinny House
A Studio 27 Renovation on Capitol Hill Once a Carriage House, Now a Home The Bank that Became a Home
From Pie to Hooch to Heroin to Home The Live-Aboards of Gangplank Marina A Treehouse with Rock Creek Park As A Backyard
Modern Tranquility in Sperryville Saddle Up For Stable Living Throwing a Curve at 550 Square Feet
A Modern Hilltop Retreat Tilden Street Restaurant Becomes Spacious Home Focus on Design: A Vastu Unit at 22 West
The DC Area’s First Net Zero Home A Yankee Goes Green DC’s First Carbon Neutral Home
Eco-Friendly Alley House Off H Street The Gym, The Stables and The Firehouse