"Different times, situations, scenarios, and plans call for different loan terms."
Nice to see your wisdom here. Rare these days when somebody takes into account all the factors and using them for their gain. Nice job.
I think a big problem is that people start out knowing what they are doing, realize the term of the loan and the situation of what is going on and have a plan on what to do down the road. Problem is, they never execute the plan.
And here is a related rant for anyone who is interested and actually reading all this nonsense...
I couldn't tell you how many people with ARMs are just now starting to realize they should have refinanced a year ago when daily they were hearing about rate increases and every mortgage guy in town had radio ads on to get out of their ARMs. But they never connected the dots and realized they need to refinance their ARM.
But a bit of good news for you people with ARMs, while you missed out getting a super low fixed rate (comparativley speaking) rates, like gasoline prices, have plummeted lately and I forcast a continued decline in rates for at least the very short term (meaning a month, two at most). I won't predict past that at this time. So if you have an ARM, need to refinance and have not done so, I suggest playing the floating game. Get your app approved but don't schedule closing and don't lock your rate.
You have time. Docs are good for 60 to 120 days depending on the doc. You get your best pricing with a 7 day lock, but that might cause problems, so a 15 day is a safe lock and you get a much better price than a 30 day or longer lock.
Take advantage now while you can! REFINANCE!