Refinancing your home can be a viable option

Given the current state of the economy, homeowners almost certainly need to still have a 20% equity stake in their home in order to be approved for refinancing by normal lenders standards. However, if you have lees than 20% equity, there still may be government help that allows you to refinance

While it was easy to get mortgages back in the days of sub prime and alt A, now your finances are going to be looked over closely. The days of easy money are gone. Good attorneys may be able to find loop holes and get you a loan modification which may have the same effect as a refinance, sometimes even better as principle reductions, while rare, are possible with a loan modification, but would never happen in a boilerplate refinance.

Some people make too much money to qualify for a loan modification, but in that case, so long as your credit is good, now while interest rates are still low, a refinance may be the best viable option.

2nd mortgages are usually at a higher interest rate than the 1st mortgage on the home, because if you foreclose, chances are that the company holding the note on the 2nd mortgage may not see a penny from the sale of the home, of course that is given today’s scenario where the housing prices have plummeted. However, if the 2nd mortgage holder believes that a refinancing to a lower interest rate may result in a homeowner staying in their home, they have more to gain by allowing you to refinance.

A 2nd mortgage no longer means that it is hard to get low interest rates; rather to the contrary, in today’s market it is easier to get a lowered interest rate on your second mortgage. And given that your second mortgage is usually the higher of the two interest rates of your mortgage loans, it may be the first attack you should attempt in order to lower your monthly mortgage payments on the whole.