bank rates credit cards insurance finance calculators

How Bad Is The Refinancing Run Around?

Posted in Mortgage Rates by CrankySaver
September 2, 2009 04:30 PM - 3 Comments

This should be a great time to refinance.

The average rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage — the most popular type of home loan — fell to just 5.41% in Bankrate’s weekly survey of major lenders taken today.

Banks are taking months to process applications to refinance mortgages because they are short-staffed and scrutinizing each deal more closely.The best mortgage rates in the 10 cities we surveyed in August ranged from 5.125% to 4.875%, down from June and July.

Then we saw this story that says refinancings are taking months to close.

The Record, in Bergen County, N.J., says thinly staffed banks can’t handle the volume of applications, especially since they’re giving those applications closer scrutiny and requiring more documentation of income and assets.

“The upshot is that refinancing deals that used to take no more than a month now can take two or three, depending on the lender,” The Record reports. “The largest lenders — such as Bank of America and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. — have been among the slowest, brokers say.”

Is that what’s really happening out there?

Don't miss out on the next bank deal. Get the newest deals delivered straight to your inbox!
Name:
Email:

Comments (3)
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (5 votes, average: 4.60 out of 5)
Loading ... Loading ...
3 Existing Comments

Add New Comment

  1. whatrefi? said:
    on September 2nd at 05:19 pm

    my husband and I have great credit scores and refid with WellsFargo with whom we had our mortgage the first time. you’d think that staying with one lender would make it easy. No Way! we started the process in Feb and closed the refi at the very (and I mean very) end of June. during the close process they ‘lost’ $1032 of our escrow money because their closing agent didn’t have a system that looks across all the different parts of Wells Fargo involved. Their closing team manager admitted that they would have never found that $ if I hadnt pointed it out to them.
    They were totally overwhelmed and understaffed and their customer service capabilities were so limited it was an awful excruciating process.
    Seems the banking pendulum has swung too far the opposite direction. No return to the days of crazy easy money – but this constipated bureaucratic butt-covering non financing pipeline is no step forward. Way to go government!

  2. hallmonitor said:
    on September 3rd at 11:28 am

    what are the banks doing? they should have trained people by now but the money still is not reaching the people who need it most. it looks like the government want to say they made all this money available and how great they are. but the reality is they throw money out there and the banks keep it, don’t lend it and then give it back to the government. like they never intended to lend more anyway.

  3. Badger said:
    on September 9th at 03:53 am

    Banks should be paying back into for massive social housing schemes, that way they would repay their debt to society

© 2010 Bankrate, Inc., All Rights Reserved.
privacy policy - terms of service - contact us - affiliates - press