Mortgage refinancing: lower payments, shorter terms, or “cash-out” refi?

Once you have a mortgage, you’re stuck with it for decades, right? Maybe not. You might be able to refinance your mortgage with terms that work better for your situation. 

Before you jump in, though, it’s important to understand how mortgage refinancing works and what it might cost you. Let’s take a look at the process.

What is mortgage refinancing?

Mortgage refinancing works by replacing your current home loan with a new one. Rather than changing the terms of your current mortgage, you get an entirely new loan. Your new loan—your mortgage refinance—pays off your old mortgage.

Once you have your new mortgage, you begin making payments on that loan. Depending on your situation, your new mortgage might also involve any second mortgages or home equity lines of credit (HELOCs). You might be able to wrap all of your current mortgages—and even consolidate other outstanding debt—into one new loan through refinancing.

How does refinancing work?

Refinancing requires a process similar to getting your original mortgage. You’ll have to submit an application and go through a credit check. Plus, you’ll need to provide proof of income and identity, similar to what you provided during your original mortgage application.

However, the new mortgage terms might work better for you. Mortgage refinancing can result in:

• A lower interest rate, and thus lower monthly payments (all else being equal).
• A shorter loan term, if you choose.
• A chunk of cash you can use (if you get a cash-out refinance—more on that below).

When you refinance, you also need to be prepared for fees. Just as your original mortgage came with fees, your refinance will also come with added costs. (Note: Some refinancing pitches will tell you it’s done “at no cost” to you, but really the costs are buried somewhere else. See more below.)  

Be sure that any savings you get from mortgage refinancing offset your costs.

What is cash-out refinancing?

Cash-out refinancing is a type of mortgage refinance that allows you to borrow more than your current mortgage balance and keep the difference. 

For example, suppose you owe $250,000 on your current mortgage. Your home appraises for $400,000. You decide on a cash-out refinance. In many cases, you can get a cash-out refinance that leaves you with 20% equity in your home (80% loan-to-value, or LTV). 

So, your lender might approve a mortgage of 80% of the $400,000 appraised value, or $320,000. 

Assuming you’d like that maximum LTV loan, at closing, $250,000 will be used to pay off the original mortgage, and the extra $70,000 will be given to you (again, minus any closing costs and fees charged by your lender). You’ll then begin to make payments on that amount.  

You can use that $70,000 for whatever you want, whether it’s funding your child’s college, getting rid of credit card debt, or paying for a wedding.

Realize, though, that once you get a cash-out refinance, you’re using your home to secure whatever it is you pay for. If you can’t make payments later, you could lose your home. Make sure you can afford the payments and that your use of cash makes sense for your financial goals before you move forward.

Should I refinance my home?

There are different scenarios to consider when deciding whether you should refinance your home. Mortgage refinancing has some benefits, but you need to make sure they align with your goals. Here are some common reasons why people refinance their homes.

Lower interest rate. One of the best reasons to refinance is to lower your interest rate. If you have a variable-rate mortgage, refinancing to a fixed rate can help you avoid increases to your monthly payment if rates are on the rise.

When you refinance to a lower interest rate, you potentially reduce your monthly payment. You have two main choices when refinancing to a lower rate:

1. Keep the same term. Refinance, but keep the same schedule. So, if you have 20 years left on a 30-year loan, you might refinance to a lower interest rate, but instead of getting anew 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, you’d get a 20-year mortgage.
2. Get a longer loan. Reduce your payment even further by getting a new 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. This can help boost your monthly cash flow, but you’ll be in debt for an extra 10 years.

Let’s go through an example. Suppose you have a current monthly payment of $1,703 with an interest rate of 5.5%. You have $250,000 left on your mortgage and you want to refinance. Suppose the rate on a 20-year fixed mortgage is 4.0% and a 30-year fixed is 4.3%. Typically, the longer-term mortgage carries a higher interest rate. That’s called a “normal” yield curve. 

• If you refinance to a 20-year term, your new payment will be $1,515, and you’ll save $45,132 in total interest.
• If you refinance to a 30-year term, you’ll have a much lower payment of $1,237, but you’ll pay almost $82,000 more in interest over the life of the mortgage. Ouch!

Adding to the time you have a mortgage can result in a higher overall cost, even though you have better monthly cash flow. Understanding this trade-off is important as you decide whether to refinance.

Pay off your home loan sooner. Maybe your goal is to pay off your mortgage faster, becoming debt free at a younger age. Using the same numbers as before, what if you decide to refinance to a 15-year term and pay off your mortgage five years sooner? 

At 4%, your new monthly payment would be $1,849.22. That’s about $146 more than your monthly payment pre-refinance, but you’re free of your mortgage five years sooner and you save almost $76,000 in interest (versus your current mortgage). That’s a big chunk of money that goes back into your pocket—instead of to your lender.

Just make sure you can afford the higher payment. If you’re concerned about that, you could do what some savvy savers do and take the longer-term mortgage, but make extra payments toward the principal each month. That way, you still pay off the mortgage faster and save on interest, but you’re not locked into the higher monthly payment. If you run into a cash crunch, you can scale back to the required payment and reduce the chance that you’ll fall behind.

Now, about those refinancing costs

Before deciding if you should refinance your house, make sure you consider the cost. The closing costs on a refinance add up to about $5,000 on average, according to Freddie Mac. Some of the costs you can expect to pay on a mortgage refinance include:

• Origination fees
• Underwriting fees
• Appraisal fees
• Credit report fees
• Attorney fees
• Title fees
• Government recording costs
• Various service fees

If you have $5,000 in closing costs, the time it takes to recoup that amount depends on the terms of your mortgage:

• 20-year refinance: 27 months
• 30-year refinance: 10 months

Your lower mortgage payment with a 30-year refinance means you see a quicker recuperation of costs, based on your savings due to cash flow. But remember that you pay more in interest overall. On the other hand, with a 15-year refinance, you won’t recoup your cost through monthly payment savings, but your total interest savings make it more than worthwhile to refinance from a strict numbers standpoint.

Watch out for the no-cost refinance. Some lenders claim to offer no-cost refinancing, but beware. It might be called “no-cost” because you aren’t paying anything up front. Instead, your fees might be rolled into your mortgage, making it a little more expensive. Some lenders don’t charge costs, but instead might have a higher rate—costing you more each month.

The bottom line

Before deciding on mortgage refinancing, make sure you consider it in the context of your overall financial goals. How long do you plan to stay in the home? Are you OK with paying all that interest, or would you rather become debt free sooner? And as a corollary, are you able to take mortgage interest as a tax deduction, or do you take the standard deduction?

Also, realize that mortgage refinancing can impact your credit score, so you need to balance getting a new home loan with other credit you might be seeking later. Run the numbers, using a refinancing or mortgage calculator (like the one above) to see what will work best for you.