Mortgage refinancing on the rise in Maine

PORTLAND – Maine residents are refinancing their mortgages at a rapid pace, helping homeowners lower their monthly house payments while also boosting the sluggish economy.

With interest rates below 6 percent, many mortgage brokers say a majority of their mortgages are from homeowners wishing to refinance, rather than for home purchases.

That, says Maine state economist Laurie Lachance, has helped provide “economic vitality” for the state by pumping more money into homeowners’ hands – and into the economy.

“We’ve had slow income growth and consumer confidence has been coming down and people’s feeling of their net worth – and, in real terms, the loss in value of the stock market – would normally start to constrain consumer spending,” Lachance said. “Through refinancing, it’s newfound money almost. It’s kept us afloat.”

Last week, the average rate was 5.81 percent for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage and 5.13 percent for a 15-year mortgage. Both those figures represent increases of about 0.4 percentage points from record low rates set two weeks earlier, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association of America.

“With the uptick in rates the last couple of weeks, some of that just got people off the fence waiting to see if things were going to get even better,” said Jim Skvorak, the vice president of Downeast Mortgage in South Portland. “I don’t know if it’s fair to expect they could get much better than they are now.”

Phil Laughlin, a partner with First Financial Mortgage in South Portland, said of the 38 loans he wrote last month, 24 were to homeowners wanting to refinance. The remainder were loans to homebuyers.

Nationally, loans to people refinancing make up about 70 percent to 75 percent of all mortgage loans, according to the mortgage bankers’ group.

Some people refinance to lower their monthly mortgage payments with lower interest rates. Others use the low rates to reduce the length of their mortgages from 30 years to 15 or 20 years. And others hope to use the low rates to tap into some of their home’s equity, which is the value of a house after mortgage principal.

Lachance said some homeowners who refinance loans to convert paper equity into cash are using the money to renovate or expand their homes, buy cars or complete other major purchases.

This is “a once-in-the-lifetime opportunity” for people to spend money, cut the length of their loans and reduce payments simultaneously, she said.