Decisions Decision
Gah - Who knew that being a homeowner involved SO MANY decisions?
When Kyle and I started house shopping we also started watching the interest rate at our credit union. Man - that thing is a roller coaster ride, if ever I saw one!
At one point the rate for a no points, 30-year fixed loan got down to 4.875%. Oh how I wish we had locked in back then...
By the time Kyle and I found our place the rate had risen to 5%... and then to 5.1%... and then 5.25%... and by the time we actually got all of our paperwork together and locked in, the rate was up to 5.375%. I was SO SAD. The difference in our monthly mortgage payment with a 5.375% loan vs. a 5% loan is like $125/month. It's a pretty big deal. I cried a lot about it (in fact I may have actually bawled in the bathroom at work, b/c I'm a bit over dramatic like that) - but eventually I accepted that there was nothing I could do about it.
In the following weeks, the interest rate continued to rise. At one point it got as high as 5.9%!!! Sheesh! Suddenly 5.375% was looking pretty good. Over the weekend, however, the rates started coming back down. On Monday they were 5.5%. And then, today, we got news that the rate dropped to 5.25%. Woah.
Our credit union has a policy that, for a fee of $250, you can do a one time "re-lock". Which means that for $250, we could lock in, today, at 5.25%. Which would save us $44/month. Not HUGE money, but you know, it would cover my monthly cell phone bill. But we can only do it once...
So the big question is: do we re-lock today and save $44/month... or do we save our one-time re-lock and wait to see if the rate drops again for potentially more savings?? Locking today means a guaranteed $44 in my pocket every month... locking tomorrow or the next day or even next week could mean $0 but it could also mean $50 or $60 or $100 per month!
What to do??? What to do???
When Kyle and I started house shopping we also started watching the interest rate at our credit union. Man - that thing is a roller coaster ride, if ever I saw one!
At one point the rate for a no points, 30-year fixed loan got down to 4.875%. Oh how I wish we had locked in back then...
By the time Kyle and I found our place the rate had risen to 5%... and then to 5.1%... and then 5.25%... and by the time we actually got all of our paperwork together and locked in, the rate was up to 5.375%. I was SO SAD. The difference in our monthly mortgage payment with a 5.375% loan vs. a 5% loan is like $125/month. It's a pretty big deal. I cried a lot about it (in fact I may have actually bawled in the bathroom at work, b/c I'm a bit over dramatic like that) - but eventually I accepted that there was nothing I could do about it.
In the following weeks, the interest rate continued to rise. At one point it got as high as 5.9%!!! Sheesh! Suddenly 5.375% was looking pretty good. Over the weekend, however, the rates started coming back down. On Monday they were 5.5%. And then, today, we got news that the rate dropped to 5.25%. Woah.
Our credit union has a policy that, for a fee of $250, you can do a one time "re-lock". Which means that for $250, we could lock in, today, at 5.25%. Which would save us $44/month. Not HUGE money, but you know, it would cover my monthly cell phone bill. But we can only do it once...
So the big question is: do we re-lock today and save $44/month... or do we save our one-time re-lock and wait to see if the rate drops again for potentially more savings?? Locking today means a guaranteed $44 in my pocket every month... locking tomorrow or the next day or even next week could mean $0 but it could also mean $50 or $60 or $100 per month!
What to do??? What to do???
Labels: home sweet home, such a grown-up
posted by Courtney at 3:09 PM
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