Here's the latest on the refinancing boom watch.
Rates on 30-year, fixed mortgages tumbled this week to their lowest level since Freddie Mac started tracking them nearly 28 years ago.
Freddie reported today that the average rate on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage fell to 5.01 percent, down from 5.1 percent last week and 5.87 percent a year ago.
Meanwhile, the average rate on a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped to 4.62 percent, the lowest point since June 2003. The average 15-year rate was 4.83 percent last week.
Mortgages rates have been sliding since late November, when the Federal Reserve announced plans to spend up to $500 billion to buy up mortgage-backed securities in efforts to buttress the distressed U.S. housing market.
Well, the Fed now has moved from promises to action on the mortgage front, pushing rates even lower. Refinancing activity has surged as creditworthy homeowners look to restructure their household finances to reduce debt loads and improve cash flow.
If you can shave a percentage point off your current mortgage - and resist the temptation to tap into your house like a piggybank - it could be one of the smartest financial moves you can make this recession year. Depending on how aggressively the Fed behaves in the mortgage-security markets, rates could be heading even lower.
It's well worth keeping an eye on.
The key to this taking advantage of these great low rates is to just refinance your current debt on your house and not pull money out buy a lot a crap you don't need or take a trip to Europe. And get a fixed rate not an adjustable rate...That's how we got in the mess we are in now