Thursday, March 5, 2009

on interest rates & refinancing

james and i refinanced our house today (technically we just signed all of the papers to lock in our interest rate and activate the float down until april 11). we never really thought much about refinancing since we just bought the house in december and don't really qualify for any of the special packages obama is offering. however, james' boss just refinanced his house at 5% and is saving thousands of dollars with the lower interest rate, so we decided to make an appointment with our loan officer at arvest and see if refinancing would be beneficial.

what do you know, refinancing will save us thousands as well! even though our interest rate was not bad, we locked into a 4.5% rate today! (15 year fixed with no origination fee). my advice for all homebuyers is to look into refinancing because it could save a lot of money in the long run. if you do not currently own a home, now is prime time! home prices are great, interest rates are at all time lows, and the $8000 first time home buyer credit is a huge plus! now i sound like an annoying sales person, but i promise i have no ulterior motives.

time to hangout with the basketball wives club. i have not forgotten to write about james' and my big news, but it got a little more complicated (in a good way) today with another offer. until all decisions and dates are finalized, i cannot say anything, but i am really excited. love yall!

5 comments:

Erin said...

4.5%! That's great. Who did you get your mortgage through? We just got pre-approved at bofa to start seriously looking and they quoted us 5.8 or something like that (we both have excellent credit). We were going to do the shopping around for the mortgage when we were ready to write an offer. We're not in a rush to buy something, but there are so many good deals on the market!! I mean we're probably only going to live in the place for 2 years and then rent it when we get jobs.

Anonymous said...

Why did your baby days go up?

Jenn Eastman said...

what big news???

Jenn Eastman said...

what big news?

Katie said...

Good move with the refinancing! We locked in at an awesome rate, so we're the only ones within our group of friends who haven't refinanced ... but we would definitely do it if we didn't have a good rate! It's definitely the smart thing to do right now, like you said, regardless how long you've owned your house.

You can TOTALLY do the baby food, Silvy. I was intimidated at first but it's really very, very easy. I borrowed a book from a friend called "BabySteps: Guide for preparing great tasting, healthy baby food". It gives you the basic information on what to do and it is ridiculously easy. Plus, you make enough in one batch to last a long time. Since we're just now introducing Caleb to veggies, we'll introduce one at a time and he will eat only that veggie for 3-4 days (to make sure he isn't allergic). So I have enough food stored in our freezer for over a month! And it cost $6 for all of it. Definitely a bargain! Ask Molly how she did it--I think she made Jude's food! I might have a bunch leftover, too, but I can mix it with other things once Caleb is ready to move on to more ingredients. :) And you can find small food processors anywhere. It doesn't have to be JUST for making baby food! Go for it!