Mortgage Refinancing

If you are a homeowner, now might be a good time to think about refinancing your mortgage.

Refinancing is when you apply for a secured loan in order to pay off another different loan secured against the same assets, property etc. If this original loan had a fixed interest rate mortgage which has now declined considerably, then you would like to avail of a new loan at a more favorable interest rate.

When is Refinancing an Option
Typically home refinancing is done when you have a mortgage on your home and apply for a second loan to pay off the first one. While taking the decision to go for the home refinancing option, it is important to first determine whether the amount you save on interests balances the amount of fees payable during refinancing.

Benefits of Home Refinancing
Imagine a scenario where you can have access to extra cash, while simultaneously lowering your monthly mortgage payment. This dream can become a reality through mortgage refinancing.

A house is the largest asset you may ever own. Likewise, your mortgage payment may be the largest expense you'll have in your monthly budget. Wouldn't it be great to use this asset to reduce your monthly payment and put extra cash in your pocket? When you refinance your mortgage, you can take advantage of the equity in your home and enable this to take place.

Lower Refinance Rate, Lower Payments
When you purchased your dream home, the financial environment dictated interest rates. While certain factors, like your credit rating and the amount of the down payment that you were able to afford, influenced your interest rate, the single most important factor was the prevailing rates at that moment. However, interest rates fluctuate. When the Federal Reserve enters a rate-cutting period, the prevailing rates may become significantly lower than when you originally purchased your home.

By refinancing your mortgage when interest rates are lower, you can exchange a higher interest rate for a lower one, which, in turn, will lower your monthly payment.

Shorten the Length of Your Mortgage when Refinancing
Another advantage of home refinancing is that you can shorten the term of your mortgage. Let's say, for example, that you originally had a 30-year mortgage and have been paying it for eight years. Thanks to mortgage refinancing, you can switch to a shorter term of either 10, 15 or 20 years. This can save you thousands of dollars of interest. Also, if the refinance rate is lower, but you maintain the same monthly payment, you will build up equity in your home more quickly, because more of your payment will be going towards principal.

Exchange an Adjustable Rate for a Fixed Refinance Rate
When interest rates are low, adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) are the housing market's darlings. However, as interest rates increase, that adjustable rate may not look as sweet. It's also possible that you opted for an ARM because your financial future was less secure, or you weren't sure how long you'd stay in your home. If, however, you've become financially stable and know that you'll be staying in your home for several years, it may be beneficial to swap that fluctuating adjustable rate for a fixed one. You'll have more security knowing that your monthly payment will remain steady, regardless of the current market environment.

Madoff appears at courthouse, has curfew set

Disgraced investor Bernard Madoff made a surprise appearance at the Manhattan federal courthouse as a judge set new conditions for his bail, including a curfew and monitoring bracelet.

Madoff remains free on bail. He said nothing to reporters as he walked out of the building; it's unclear why he was at the courthouse because his hearing had already been postponed.

Part of Madoff's bail conditions required that he find people to co-sign for him, and his wife and brother had already done so.

Madoff had been required to find two additional co-signers to vouch for him, but with the scandal swirling around him, he was unable to do so. So the judge modified the bail package, and gave lawyers until next Monday to come up with additional paperwork.

Madoff has already surrendered his passport, and now will be required to be at his Manhattan apartment from 7 p.m to 9 a.m. His wife was also required to surrender her passport.

Madoff was arrested on charges that he carried out what prosecutors said he called a $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

Fed eyes record low interest rates to battle deflation

All eyes will be on the feds to see if they lower interest rates today. But at this stage that we're in, will it really help? With all the turmoil going on in financial news right now, it's hard for me to say.

Many analysts are anticipating a half-point cut, which still would be an all-time low for the rate.

But the Fed's low rates have not yet filtered into many consumer and business loans, and the central bank is likely to expand its arsenal of extraordinary actions to break the global credit crunch and avert a crippling deflationary spiral, say analysts.

"The Fed basically lost control of the rate after the Lehman Brothers failure on September 15," said Jeremy Siegel, a University of Pennsylvania economist and adviser to Rittenhouse Asset Management.

"With the effective real market rate now at zero, what difference does a cut make?" said John Mauldin, president of Millennium Wave Advisors.

"I hope they do the right thing and go ahead and cut at least 75 basis points, if not more. That would stop the speculation and let them move on to quantitative easing and other allied policies."