Should You Re-Finance

One of the ways you can determine if mortgageThe term calculate balance means to let the mortgage
refinancing is a sound idea for you is to use one of therefinancing calculator determine what balance you
many mortgage refinancing calculators available athave left based on the information you have given
finance sites on the Web. Mortgage refinancingabout the original loan and the years that remain on it.
advisability depends on several things. You have toTo let the calculator determine if mortgage refinancing
look at your current rate of interest, the rate you mightis advisable for you youll need to know what your
secure with refinancing, how long you plan to live inhome is currently appraised at or guesstimate this if
your current home, and the closing costs on theyou dont know and the balance of the mortgage. The
mortgage refinance.calculator will assume you want to refinance the
To fully understand the results of the mortgagebalance. If that is not the case � if you have funds
refinancing calculators and the use they make of yourfrom elsewhere that you are going to apply to the
information it is important to understand mortgagebalance prior to refinancing then youll want to subtract
refinancing jargon. Weve included some here.that total from the balance and indicate to the
The first term is probably self explanatory. Youll hearcalculator that that new figure is your balance. Youll
mortgage refinance professionals refer to your originalalso have to have some idea of what new interest
mortgage amount. This simply means the amount ofrate you are likely to get and then decide on the
the loan that you originally signed for when you firstnumber of years you want to take to pay off the new
took out your mortgage. Appraised value is a termloan.
youll hear frequently as well. Lenders are referringWhat is important to gather as well, is the loan
here to the value the professional appraiser put onorigination rate. This is the percentage of this mortgage
your home when it was first purchased. The phraserefinance balance that you pay the lender as his or her
current term in years means the number of years youloan origination fee. In most cases, this is going to be
were given to pay off your original loan. If you took outone percent of the loan balance. The term other
a 30 year mortgage your current term in years isclosing refers to any closing costs for the new loan.
thirty. Years remaining will come up in any mortgageThis will include appraiser and filing fees.
refinancing discussion or calculation. It means thePoints Paid is an important term to know for mortgage
number of years you have left to pay on yourrefinancing calculations. It means the number of points
mortgage.youll have to pay to your lending institution to reduce
If someone asks for your income tax rate when theythe mortgage interest rate. Each point represents one
calculate your mortgage refinancing costs and optionspercent of the amount of the new loan.
they want to know what rate of interest you paid toPMI is an important term as well. It means principle
Uncle Sam last year when you did your taxes.mortgage insurance.