White House to "Step Up" Refinancing in 2010

In his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama said “This year, we will step up refinancing so that homeowners can move into more affordable mortgages.”

The big question, as the Wall Street Journal pointed out yesterday, is how? Strict lending standards and high rates of negative equity means many borrowers can’t refinance. Those that can probably already took advantage of the record low rates we’ve seen this past year.

Zillow’s own data, taken from our real-time mortgage rates based on thousands of custom mortgage quotes submitted daily to anonymous borrowers, shows that while overall loan request volume is quite strong, the latest refinance boom appears to be dwindling.

When rates dropped below 5.0% in October this past year, consumer interest in refinancing surged with refinance requests making up almost half (48%) of all consumer loan requests on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace.  Compare that to this month, rates are still hovering under 5.0%, yet refinance requests so far account for only 32% of all loan requests.  And consider that one year ago, refinance requests made up over 66% of all loan requests.

Many experts forecast rates to rise this year, so if you’re considering a refinance, now is a good time to start shopping. An easy way to shop for a mortgage is through Zillow Mortgage Marketplace.

• Submit a refinance loan request, anonymously, and receive unlimited custom quotes from lenders.
• Use the interactive Break-Even graph to determine how long you need to live in your home to offset the cost of refinancing.
• After comparing quotes side-by side (inclusive of all lender fees), and reading lender reviews and ratings, you decide which lenders to contact…they don’t call you.