Dear MarketWatch, I’m 66 and have a mortgage with $47,000 left on it. My interest rate is 3%, and it’s a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. I pay $136 a month. My mortgage was due to be paid off in 2027. But my old lender decided to sell my loan to another, and now it looks like my mortgage will only be paid off when I’m 90 years old.
I want to refinance my loan to a 10-year or a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage, to pay the loan off sooner. So my question is, is it a good idea to refinance? Please advise. Signed, No Luck ‘The Big Move’ is a MarketWatch column looking at the ins and outs of real estate, from navigating the search for a new home to applying for a mortgage. Do you have a question about buying or selling a home? Do you want to know where your next move should be? Email Aarthi Swaminathan at TheBigMove@marketwatch.com.Dear No Luck, Looking at current mortgage rates, I’d say you’re better off not refinancing your 30-year fixed mortgage. I know you want to pay it off fast. But you’ve got a mortgage with a 3% interest rate. You’ve snagged a historically low interest rate, which we may not see again for years. If you want to refinance, your monthly payments could go up. The mortgage rate for the average 15-year mortgage is over 5%. I’m not certain if you want that, as you may now be retired, or planning to retire very soon. If you’re thinking of doing a cash-out refinance, David Krebs, who is a Florida-based mortgage broker, said that it may be a good idea, as long as you have enough equity in your home and the property value is high enough. If you’ve got a “pressing need for cash,” Krebs said, “then it might be worth paying the higher interest rate …