People hoping for a
quick turnaround in the mortgage market will be disappointed by a new Harris Interactive poll that shows only 4 percent of those surveyed plan to refinance this year. Home equity lines of credit fared even worse with only 2 percent of those polled planning on taking out a loan in 2008.
Republicans and Democrats were slightly more likely to refinance this year — 5 percent each — compared to Independents at 4 percent.
About 6 percent of GenXers (ages 21-42) and Baby Boomers (43-61) are planning to refinance while only 1 percent of Echo Boomers (18-30) and 2 percent of what were called “Matures” (62+) think they will refi.
Americans overall were pretty glum about the economy with only 43 percent expecting it to improve or stay the same while 45 percent think it will get worse (12 percent weren’t sure).
The poll, released today, surveyed 2,335 U.S. adults online from Dec. 4-Dec. 12.
From Bill 1A….2003 thru 2006 saw many people in Orange County finance or refinance their homes with 3-5 and or 7 year fixed rate loans, with some as low as 3.875%. Regarding how many or what percentage of people are going to refinance this year depends first and foremost on where interest rates are. Let’s assume that rates stay pretty constant all year (08). Then let’s assume that most (not all) still have some equity left in their homes. If today was the date when some of these short-term fixed rate loans were to roll-over into their 1 yr. period of adjustment (index + margin), many homeowners would let the roll-over occur due to most indexes + margins add up to close to what a new fixed rate term would be today. However, many may look at where current rates are and decide now would be a good time to roll their loan over into a fully amortized 30 year fixed rate loan. In Orange County, the problem is that most loan amounts are in the Jumbo range and right now the spread between conforming and jumbo is near an all time high. So with this in mind, jumbo borrowers would probably not look into refinancing but instead let the roll-over take place, at least until until jumbo rates come down.