Mortgage Guides
Eight questions that decide what a mortgage costs you. Each guide starts with the answer, explains why it holds, and links to the calculator that prices the decision on your own figures.
- Does refinancing reset your mortgage?A new 30-year term restarts the interest-heavy years you already paid through.
- Recast vs extra paymentsBoth send a lump sum to principal. Only one lowers the payment you are required to make.
- Refinancing when your rate is already lowWhy a below-market rate is an asset, and the two cases where giving it up still makes sense.
- What refinance break-even really meansThe usual formula ignores the balance you stop paying down. That is where it goes wrong.
- Are no-closing-cost refinances real?The costs are real. The question is whether you pay them in cash, in the balance, or in the rate.
- PITI vs principal and interestWhy the payment that leaves your account is larger than the one you were quoted.
- Are discount points worth it?Points are prepaid interest. Whether they pay back depends on how long you keep the loan.
- When can I stop paying PMI?Two different thresholds, two different rules, and one of them you have to ask for.
- What closing costs does the seller pay?Commission, transfer tax, title and any buyer credit, all taken out of the sale price at closing.
- How does an FHA streamline refinance work?Who qualifies, HUD's half-point test, and when the new upfront premium pays for itself.
- Why are cash-out refinance rates higher?The agencies' cash-out price adjustments, what moves your rate, and what the premium costs.
- How are HELOC rates set?Prime plus a margin, what sets the margin, rate caps and intro rates, and what a 1-point rise costs.
Guides and calculators
They work together: every guide ends with a link to the tool that runs the numbers.
A calculator can tell you that refinancing into a fresh 30-year term adds interest even at a lower rate. It cannot tell you why that happens, which terms avoid it, or what a lender means when the Loan Estimate says something different from the advertisement. The guides cover that.
Each one gives the answer in the first paragraph, and the explanation that follows helps you check whether it applies to you.
Where to start
Three of these come up more often than the rest.
- What a refinance break-even point really means: the formula almost everyone uses, what it leaves out, and why this site prints two figures instead of one.
- Does refinancing reset your mortgage?: yes, if you take a fresh 30 years, which is a common and costly habit.
- Refinancing with a low rate: why a below-market rate is usually worth keeping, and the two situations where giving it up still makes sense.
The glossary covers the vocabulary these use, and the calculators price every decision they describe.