Bankrate’s Greg McBride on refinancing survey results
November 20, 2020
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Today’s HousingWire Daily features an exclusive interview with Bankrate‘s Senior Vice president and Chief Financial Analyst Greg McBride. In this episode, McBride discusses Bankrate’s recent survey on refinancing appetite and explains why many homeowners have not considered refinancing their homes.
Here is a small preview of today’s interview with McBride. The transcript below has been lightly edited for length and clarity:
Q: According to the survey, 52% of homeowners have not considered refinancing their homes. That’s a pretty high percentage. Can you explain some of the top reasons they haven’t?
Greg McBride: That’s a very high percentage considering this has been a year of record-low mortgage rates. There are really three reasons that people point to; one is they feel it’s not going to save them enough money, second, is they say that the fees or closing costs are too high and the third most common is paperwork. They say there is too much paperwork and hassle involved in the refinancing process.
Q: Let’s discuss the recently introduced refi fee that will be implemented on December 1. Bankrate’s survey determined this fee is now impacting whether or not homeowners are choosing to refinance. Can you expand on this for our listeners?
Greg McBride: There’s definitely a big outrage factor as far as this fee is concerned. We found that 57% of those who haven’t refinanced this year claimed the fee is why they would not refinance, including 42% who said they’re much less likely to refinance as a result of the fee. We’ve seen most lenders reflect this in pricing by tacking on about an eighth of a percentage point to the rate. It’s not something that’s necessarily going to have to be paid out of pocket via a fee, it’s already reflected in pricing. And that pricing is such that we’re still seeing record low rates. Yes, it’s out there, but it doesn’t dilute the benefit of refinancing, given how low rates are today.
HousingWire Daily examines the most compelling articles reported from the HousingWire newsroom. Each afternoon, we provide our listeners with a deeper look into the stories coming across our newsroom that are helping Move Markets Forward. Hosted by the HW team and produced by Alcynna Lloyd and Victoria Wickham.
HousingWire articles covered in this episode:
