Who Is Comfortable with Your Current Mortgage?

We did a refi two months ago. Cut 10yrs off the term, upped the payment about $150 and cut almost 2 points off the interest rate.
We're happy, with the mortgage and the home.

We refinanced, it was hard but worth it.

Before I remarried I looked into the different programs, unless you are behind, or upside down, none of the programs help. I called B of A who held my mortgage, they said you have over 100,000 in equity, we don't care if you default. Yeah, thanks guys! This was after they had refused to refinance because my income didn't qualify me for my mortgage and I pointed out they held my mortgage!! So if I can't afford the lower amount why are they keeping me in the higher amount.

Everything is effed up!

Oh yeah, when we did refinance we went from a 30 to a 15 and the payments still went down. The best part, giving the big middle finger to B of A!!!

Yes, I am comfortable in my house and with my mortgage. I've been in the same house for 14 years. When I purchased it, I insisted on paying no more than twice my income, despite realtors and mortgage companies claiming I could afford up to three times my income. At that time I didn't believe I could afford a house more than twice my income, and I still don't think I could. I've refinanced once, and I should probably do it again.

I've outgrown my 2 bedroom house and could really use a house with 1-2 more bedrooms. However, I like having a house that I can afford relatively easily, and having that peace of mind is currently winning the battle of whether I should move.

My experience is that your mortgage should be 25% of your NET monthly income.
No matter what the bank SAYS you can afford.
If I had spent what I "qualified for" on a house when I was single, I would have been eating Alpo.
I don't like the idea of being house poor.
What's the point of a big fancy house if you can't furnish it, enjoy entertaining, etc.? I don't get that at all.
When my husband & I got married. We followed the 25% rule as well.
We had a 30 ye conventional, the re-fi'd to a 15.
We've lived here for 14 years and our house is paid off now.
So...yeah...i guess you could say I'm comfortable with that! Lol
My point is--if you can't "comfortably" afford it-- don't buy it!
And if you already have and aren't comfortable--sell!

Nope ours is a nightmare. We've been in re-fi negotiations for almost 4 YEARS. When we asked for an interest rate reduction in 2009 because my husband was laid off in 2008 and his new job paid a lot less than his old one so money was tight, our lender dragged us through 3 failed attempts at "Home Affordable" over 18 months before selling our mortgage to a "mortgage rehab" company. By the time that happened, our credit was trashed (because we had to stop making payments to try to qualify for HAMP) and our house was worth $100k less than we owed. Awesome. That new company has been "trying" to do a short re-fi for 2.5 years. I paid $30K in mortgage payments last year and $25K of that was to interest and the rest was to escrow, so they're not trying all that hard. We owe as much now as when we bought this house 6 years ago. Not a penny of principal has been paid.cThe deal was supposed to be that because they bought my mortgage for half of what it was worth from my old lender that they would be willing to sell it to a conventional lender for market value at a conventional interest rate. But because our septic system needs to be replaced, we can't get an FHA loan. But we can't get a septic loan until we re-fi the house...so around and around we go.

All this for a 50 year old, 1100 sq ft ranch that's way too small for us. We could have dumped this 3 years ago and would be renting a house twice the size, 25 years newer, and paying $500 less than what we're paying now but no, we wanted to be "responsible" and work with our lender. What a costly mistake that has been.

We got into our house with in incredibly low rate. We couldn't even get a lower rate now, if we tried. We were VERY lucky. We got into a home, that the guy just really wanted to get off his hands. He just wanted to house gone, he was renting it out at the time. We actually met him and found out he was going to sell, before the house was put on the market. Our realtor negotiated with him directly, and we got the house for 45,000 less then he could have listed it for. Our mortgage is $300 less the the 650 sq ft. apartment we were renting at the time. Yea, we're happy with the mortgage. It's less then a lot of car payments.

If we weren't comfortable with it, we wouldn't have taken it out. It isn't like you don't know what you will be paying when you sign the documents.

We haven't had any major changes to our finances/income since taking out the mortgage either. We did refi, about 3 years ago, just because we could and it saves us money.

I guess I don't get the real question? Are you taking a survey, or are you looking for tips on how to look for mortgage help?

Yes, we are comfortable with our current mortgage...it is less than a comparable home would be to rent. We have been in our house for 10 years now. We did not overbuy...at that time mortgage lenders were approving folks for up to about 5 times their income. We bought a house that was about twice our income...10 years ago. Needless to say, our household income has gone up in 10 years so we are not house poor.

Yes, thank God, we are happy with it.
But, our mortgage has always been based on one income. Due to the instability of my husbands job, my real estate business and the fact that we wanted more children, we kept it very comfortable.
While he was laid off, I kept us afloat, now that I am a SAHM with 3 little ones, he is making the bacon.
We would have never gone above or even to the top of our budget when it came to a mortgage.
No credit cards or car payments either. I enjoy living humble. :)

We are very comfortable with our mortgage. We bought a home well within our means and put 20% down to avoid PMI. We are not house poor--which makes us very happy:)

I have heard there are some great refinance deals available. Also, if you could do a 15 or 20 year mortgage, you'll save a bundle over time.

We bought a home we could afford 3 years ago - put 20% down (we sold our starter home for a profit - lucky us) and just refinanced with a 15 year loan late this summer.

Our house payment went up slightly (going from a 30 year to 15 year) but our rate is insanely low (2.7). And, because we could afford out house payment when we bought - rising it a bit didn't really affect our budget.

We have great credit.

We've refinanced and paid down a couple of times and are in the process of refi again for another lower rate. All of our refi's were no cost and no rolling any funds into the loan which is a joke.

We also do not do the escrow because we know when it is time to pay the tax and home owners insurance. I prefer to make interest on that monry vs lending it to the mortgage company for a year.

Are we happy with our mortgage, yes.. There is no way we could rent a 1 bedrom semi nice apartment for what we pay on our mortgage now. We have about an acre lot in an upscale of area with a 4000SF house with loads of privacy and our payments have never been over $1600 a month. Right now they will go from slightly over $1000 to $900. Can't beat that deal.

We have a wonderful neighborhood and if a house backing up to the woods like we have ever goes on sale, it is gone within a week. We've even been approached by strangers who want to purchase our house. We are just not ready yet. We do have excellent credit... per our banker, the best he has ever seen. That comes with a lot of hard work and discipline.

I hope you can find something you are happy with.

we're in our last 8 years of our mortgage. We had hoped to pay it off early, but with 20+ years of medical expenses behind us.....it didn't happen. & we are truly grateful that we did not lose our home when my DH lost his $$$job.....& ended up taking a paycut of $9/hour.

Currently, our mortgage payment is less than our monthly premiums for health/dental insurance. & that is freakin' crazy......& WRONG. :)

We refinanced a few years ago and are doing so again. We are fairly happy with our mortgage, as mortgages go, but we could be happier with a couple hundred shaved off with a better rate. The thing is, though, we will likely continue to pay the same amount and pay off the principle faster. Our goal is to have the house paid in 8-10 years.

We are currently refinancing and reducing our interest rate by 2 full percentage points. This will save us a nice chunk of change.

our budget has ALWAYS been based off one income - we went cash only in 2006 and haven't looked back since.

if you have bad credit and are trying to refinance - I would make sure I have a good explanation for why my credit is bad.....go to the library and get books from Dave Ramsey, Suze Orman or some other financial person and get your ducks in a row. It's always easier when YOU are in control of your finances instead of your finances controlling you. IT IS possible - no MATTER WHAT your situation to get it under control!!

good luck!

We are thrilled to be able to live where we do with a mortgage that doesn't "eat us out of house and home". Rent around here is higher than our mortgage for homes that are no where near as large or nice as ours. Honestly, a single family home here rents for upwards of $3000 per month. We feel blessed to have what we have!

When we refinanced a few years ago I thought we'd never get a lower rate but I'm actually considering refinancing again the rates are that much lower.

Just paid ours off so loving it at the moment. Now my husband has put quite a bit on the line of credit but we only pay interest on that although I keep bugging him to start making some real payments. Grrrrrr.

We refinanced from %6.5 to %4.25 last year.
It lowered our monthly payment by $900

Yes, we're OK with our mortgage. It's higher than I'd like (isn't everyone's?) but we can afford it. Houses are expensive here so we pay about double what my brother pays for the same size house in a different state. But we chose to live here, so I can't complain.

The only times we ever bought as much house as we actually qualified for were our first one and when we moved out of state for the first time. We were able to sell each house as we moved for a lot more than we bought them for. That really helped us.

We only had ARM's when interest rates were high and we knew we would be selling in a few years' time. It would make NO sense to have an ARM now.

Interest rates are very low now and have been for 3 years, so at least there's that.

The poster who mentioned only buying 25% of net monthly income is spot on. I cannot imagine buying a house up to 35% of gross income in this day and age. To me, that's just crazy.

Dawn

We refinanced to a 15 year loan with a lower interest rate.

Our mortgage just adjusted down by $200 a month. We could easily afford to double our mortgage if we wanted to, and we most likely will in about 2-3 years time, when I feel like we have saved enough.

Our credit is excellent, and we have not refinanced. I don't believe rates are going up, and thus far, our adjustable has served us very, very well --we have saved a small fortune. I am hoping to get a 15 year with our next mortgage, but right now, I see no need to pay refinance fees when I know we will be either selling or building in 2-3 years.

We refinanced a couple years ago for 5.75% and just refinanced this past year to get a rate of 3%. Our loan is down to 15 years.

Yes, very comfortable with our current mortgage payment