The South Florida Sun-Sentinel

REFINANCING TIME IS HERE AGAIN, BUT DO THE MATH
By Robyn A. Friedman

With mortgage interest rates low -- and predicted to go lower -- no real estate column would be complete without a discussion of refinancing. Even though rates took a jump recently -- in the week ending Nov. 30, 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 7.02 percent, up from 6.75 percent the previous week -- rates are still at their lowest point in years. And for many people, the time is right for refinancing.

Take Todd Templin, for example.

Templin, who owns a home in Pembroke Pines, is about to close on a refinance of his 7 7/8 percent mortgage and is cutting his rate to 6 1/8. His savings? About $360 per month. "Who wants to pay a lender any more than they have to," Templin said. "I'm saving $360 a month, which is a car payment or more money available for charity or my kids' college educations."

"This is probably the best time in the last eight or nine years to refinance," said Don Cohen, a director and co-founder of Newman + Cohen Financial Management Inc., a financial advisory firm with offices in Boca Raton and Miami. Newman predicts that rates will drop again, and he's planning to take advantage of the dip himself; he's looking into refinancing the mortgage on a commercial building he owns in Coral Springs.

Apparently, a lot of people are following his lead. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association of America, a Washington, D.C.-based trade association, 72.9 percent of all mortgage applications during the week ending Nov. 23 were refinances, marking the eighth consecutive week that refinancing activity surpassed 70 percent of total applications. A year ago, when 30-year fixed-rate loans averaged 7.6 percent, refinancing represented 27.9 percent of total applications.

A MATTER OF INTEREST
What you can save by refinancing.