Thinking about refinancing our mortgages...

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We are caught in a bit of a quandary.  We have lived in our current home for 5 years, though the current market means that we'd likely bring money to closing if we moved now.  Our town leaders don't value education, and the test scores prove that.  So, we are considering our options, which includes perhaps refinancing our mortgages into one loan and then renting out our current home and getting into a better area that will offer our children the best possible opportunities for education, while giving us the things that we want too - culture and shopping.

In the past, we refinanced our last home and even came away from the table with money, though our mortgage loan officer told us upfront that we likely wouldn't even break even.  That was several years ago though, and it was what we needed to do to get my husband through college faster so our 5 year plan for college didn't stretch to a 10 year plan instead.  We were fully prepared to eat the loss just to get him graduated, but were more than happy to walk away with money to put down on our current house.

I plan to gather the information I need to use the mortgage refinance calculator that I found at Bankrate.com to see if it is even worth the bother of refinancing right now or if we'd be better off hanging in there for another year or so and saving like crazy to cover any loss when we sell.  We want to move within one year at the most.   The test scores don't lie and we don't want to stay in a sub-par school system.  Our town's high school is bottom 5% in our state and is not somewhere we are prepared to send our child.  Neighboring counties aren't taking tuition students, and their test scores aren't significantly better either. 

I'll also need to research closed sales to see if we'd even come close on an appraisal when comped with other houses in our neighborhood.  It is one thing to watch the neighborhood activity online to see what's for sale, but what really matters is the final contracted sale price, not the listing price.

Have you taken advantage of the low rates and refinanced amid this financial crisis?  Let me know how you did and how much you saved. 

Disclosure:  This sponsored post was brought to you by your friends at Resi.com.au.  The opinions stated herein are 100% my own.