Snag a lower interest rate on your home through a mortgage refinance (REFI for short). A REFI is taking out a new mortgage to pay off an existing one for the purpose of changing to an ideally better term, or interest rate. This could mean lower monthly payments, saving you big bucks over the course of the loan. Current rates start at the historically low 4.8 percent but are predicted to rise next year. The flip side is banks are being very strict right now, so let co-authors of “The Securitization Markets Handbook” — professors Anne Zissu of CUNY City Tech, and Charles Austin Stone of CUNY Brooklyn College — help you strike while the iron is hot.
