I have a ? about refinancing mortgages in this bad times we are living in?

Erin
I have a high house payment and want to refinance to get lower payment, however my house was worth more 5 years ago when we refinanced. Now the house is probably not worth what our balance is if we sold it. So how can I refinance a house that has a mortgage of $174, 000 when it may only appraise for $164, 000 .. I spend most of my monthly income on the house payment and even though I have made the payments and not missed, I want to either refinance to get a better monthly payment or sell the house. I feel like I am stuck in this house since the houses are not worth now what I owe on it,, any suggestions?

Herbert
You are in the same boat as most americans right now and it sucks. Pretty much you are stuck. Banks are barely loaning out money let alone more than you owe. For FHA loans the max loan to value you can get is 97.75% so you would have to come to the table with the rest. I just left the mortgage industry because, well I dont really have to explain lol. When I left they were trying to roll out a new product that would refinance up to the appraised value, but your current lender must forgive you for the remainder of the balance owed. Some banks are willing and others are not. I left before it was rolled out so dont know if anything happened with that, maybe find someone you can trust to see if anything can be done. Most likely you are going to hear NO. If you feel you cant afford the home and might start falling behind maybe look into trying to sell. You would have to do a short sale and sell it for less than you owe. Good luck

Harold
The only way you will be able to refinance is if you make a large principal payment either now or at closing. You can call your current lender to see if they can re-negotiate your terms but it's not likely.Nobody is doing 100%+ loans anymore, so they would require at least a 10K payment at closing (probably more) to proceed with a refinance. Same thing if you sold it, you'd be responsible to pay the extra.

Fleta
If the numbers you provide are accurate, the most you could refinance for is $164, 000 (the appraised value) and even then you might have problems finding a lender willing to provide a zero-down mortgage as these types of mortgages have pretty much dried up. In order to re-fi and assuming you can find a zero-down mortgage, you would have to come up with the $10, 000 difference plus closing costs.

Gabriella
You cannot. Most lenders will only do a refi at 90% of appraised value.And if it won't sell for what you owe, you are going to have ask the lender if they will consider a short sale. Each refi costs you thousands of dollars in closing costs, so habitually refi-ing your house isn't truly improving your situation.

Jacquline
Try these forums and see if there is some information or others who can give insight: http://www.loansafe.org/forum/

Edison
First thing you should do is talk to a real estate agent, pretend that you are in the market to buy a home similar to your own, or pretend that you are considering selling your own home. Get them to run a list of comparisons (Comps) of homes for sale that are comparable to yours, and a list of similar homes that have sold within the last 6 months. See if your 164K is accurate. If it is then that is not good If your estimate is low; do the math and find out what your percentage of equity is. Generally a refinance would want at very least 10 percent equity. You may also want to check the details of your escrow, check your insurance rates and compare other companies prices and coverage. That may reduce your monthly payment. Also check your taxes and see what is the dollar value that your property is being taxed at. If you are being taxed at 175K and the home is only worth 164K you can do an appeal with your tax assessors office, if they reduce your taxes, then your monthly payment would again be reduced.