FHA Streamline Refinance?

Does anyone know anything about this? We bought our home in May 2009 and have an FHA loan. Our mortgage broker called the other day suggesting we consider an FHA Streamline Refinance since interest rates have gone even lower and we would be able to reduce our monthly payment. I have been trying to do a little reading on this but does anyone know what costs are associated with this? What are the potential negatives? Did you do this and have success?

TIA!

Re: FHA Streamline Refinance?

anyone?

Re: FHA Streamline Refinance?

That's funny that you ask that. We are going to do a Streamline Refinance. DH locked in our 4.5% rate today. As he explained it to me, attorney fees/ bank costs are $2,500 up front, but we get back $1,900 at the closing table and it will save us $300/month. It makes sense for us with an out of pocket of $600 to save $300/month :)

I'm not really sure what the difference is between a regular refinance and a streamline, but based on what DH and our bank person said and the little I read so far, it sounds like a great deal. DH is in finance, so I defer to him and will do my research this weekend. :)

Great post - would love to hear more about it :)

http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/sfh/buying/streamli.cfm

Re: FHA Streamline Refinance?

You'll still have to pay title insurance, but you should be able to do a consolidation (CEMA) to save on the mortgage tax, so your costs should be relatively low.
I know usually they don't require an appraisal, so you'd save on that also.
You'd have to ask the broker what the new rate would be and see how much that would lower your payments per month, then weigh that against your closing costs to see if it's worth it.

What's your current rate?

Re: FHA Streamline Refinance?

I am also interested in this because we also bought in May 09 and have an FHA. It would be nice to lower our payments but i am not sure if it is worth paying the closing fees. We have an FHA at 5%.

FHA Streamline Refinance?

Therefore, overall FHA streamline refinance is an excellent concept in order to reduce the amount of monthly mortgage payment by reducing the principal amount and the payment on interest.

fha streamline refinance

Message edited 12/11/2012 12:11:37 AM.

FHA Streamline Refinance?

We got started on this and then backed out about a week before closing as I leaned more about it. Things that made us change our mind

-paying the upfront MIP again
-paying the title insurance and other fees again
-a higher MIP percentage monthly. This means that although your interest rate goes down your MIP goes up. Even though there is likely a net savings, I am more comfortable paying interest than MIP since The tax deduction for MIP is on shakier ground than the interest tax deduction
- it would basically erase the past two years of payment yes our payment would be lower, but we'd have 30 years left to pay instead of 28
-we know we want to refi when we get 20% equity and don't want to pay those fees twice

I think the Feds have guaranteed low rates until like 2014. We have decided to wait until closer to then, hoping that we can just do one refi.

Message edited 12/11/2012 7:15:27 AM.

FHA Streamline Refinance?

I did an FHA Streamline ReFi with my current lender (CitiBank) and only paid $73.00 out of pocket.