Current Mortgage Rates

Monday, October 13, 2008



The pros of debt consolidation:
  1. Interest paid to a mortgage may be used as a tax write-off, but, according to Bankrate.com, it could be limited in some situations.
  2. You have one payment to make versus many payments. This makes managing your finances easier because you'll know just how much you need to pay each month, and there's only one creditor to deal with versus many.
  3. The interest rates for home equity loan (second mortgage) and refinanced first mortgages are lower than most credit card interest rates.
The cons of debt consolidation:
  1. Easy to get into further debt: With an easier load to bear and more money left over at the end of the month, it might be easy to start using your credit cards again or continuing spending habits that got you into such credit card debt in the first place.
  2. Longer time to pay off: Most mortgages are the 10 to 30 year variety. This means that rather than spend a couple of years getting out of credit card debt, you will be spending the length of your mortgage getting out of debt.
  3. Spend more over the long haul: Even though the interest rate is less, if you take the loan out over a 30 year period, you may end up spending more than you would have if you had kept each individual loan.
  4. You can lose everything: Consolidation loans are secured loans. If you didn't pay an unsecured credit card loan, it would give you a bad rating but your home would still be secure. If you do not pay a secured loan, they will take away whatever secured the loan. In most cases, this is your home.
Though debt consolidation is undoubtedly a better option but sometimes there are limitations. If you are sure enough that you will be able to refund the particular loan each month in time, then only you can opt for debt consolidation. If you are taking a secured loan and you fail to pay the money then you may have to lose your house, the lender often locks the asset and you may lose a substantial possession. Therefore, it is better that until you are very sure to be able to make payments of the secured loan, don't go for debt consolidation.



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Current Mortgage Rates*

Loan Type
National Average
30-yr. fixed6.12%
30-yr. fixed jumbo7.62%
15-yr. fixed5.88%
15-yr. fixed jumbo7.12%
7/1 ARM6.25%
5/1 ARM6.00%
3/1 ARM5.88%
1-yr. ARM5.50%
1-yr. LIBOR ARM6.12%
10/1 ARM8.25%
40-yr. fixed7.12%
*Mortgage Rates Updated: 10/07/2008