How Often Can You Refinance Your Home? (2024)

FAQs

How Often Can You Refinance Your Home? ›

Legally speaking, there's no limit to how many times you can refinance your mortgage, so you can refinance as often as it makes financial sense for you. Depending on your lender and the type of loan, though, you might encounter a waiting period — also called a seasoning requirement.

In many cases, there's no waiting period to refinance. Your current lender might ask you to wait six months between loans, but you're free to simply refinance with a different lender instead. However, you must wait six months after your most recent closing (usually 180 days) to refinance if you're taking cash out.

Cost of refinancing multiple times

Each time you refinance, you'll have to pay fees, such as for the application, appraisal, credit check, attorney and title search. These can vary depending on your area and the lender, though it's common to pay anywhere from 2 percent to 5 percent of the loan principal.

Refinancing will hurt your credit score a bit initially, but might actually help in the long run. Refinancing can significantly lower your debt amount and/or your monthly payment, and lenders like to see both of those. Your score will typically dip a few points, but it can bounce back within a few months.

The Bottom Line: You Can Refinance Your Home Multiple Times

If it makes financial sense for you, refinancing your home more than once can help you manage your monthly budget, take advantage of investment opportunities and/or pay for a major life expense.

Conventional refinance: For conventional refinances (including cash-out refinances), you'll usually need at least 20 percent equity in your home (or an LTV ratio of no more than 80 percent).

Refinance closing costs commonly run between 2% and 6% of the loan principal. For example, if you're refinancing a $225,000 mortgage balance, you can expect to pay between $4,500 and $13,500. Like purchase loans, mortgage refinancing carries standard fees, such as origination fees and multiple third-party charges.

Key Takeaways

Don't refinance if you have a long break-even period—the number of months to reach the point when you start saving. Refinancing to lower your monthly payment is great unless you're spending more money in the long-run.

Most major forecasts believe that mortgage rates will ultimately trend down this year. Fannie Mae researchers recently predicted that rates would reach 6.4% by the end of 2024.

How much does refinancing cost? ›

The cost to refinance a mortgage ranges from 2% to 6% of your loan amount, and you can expect to pay less to close on a refinance than on a comparable purchase loan. The exact amount you'll have to pay depends on several factors, including: Your loan size. Your lender.

You'll need at least a 620 credit score to refinance your conventional loan (or into a conventional loan) — though at that score, you'll likely need a DTI ratio of 36 percent or less, which can be limiting. If you have a higher credit score, you might be able to refinance with a higher DTI ratio.

A rate-and-term refinance for a conventional mortgage loan typically requires at least a 620 credit score — that is, as long as your loan-to-value ratio is 75% or less, you have at least two months of cash reserves in the bank, and your debt-to-income ratio is under 36%.

When you refinance, you are required to pay closing costs like those you paid when you initially purchased your home. The average closing costs on a refinance are approximately $5,000, but the size of your loan and the state and county where you live will play big roles in how much you pay.

Conventional loans – you can do a rate-and-term refinance right away if you want, but typically not with the same lender. That's because, before 6-months, the lender may lose their original commission. On the other hand, if you want a cash-out to refinance, you'll have to wait for at least 6-months.

You may be able to lower your mortgage payment by refinancing to a lower interest rate, eliminating your mortgage insurance, lengthening your loan term, shopping around for a better homeowners insurance rate or appealing your property taxes.

It is still possible to take a home equity loan after refinancing, but in order to qualify for the loan, you will need to have a certain amount of equity built up in your home. Lender approval is based on the percentage of equity you have in the home and typically the requirement is 15 to 20 percent.

Or you may want a cash-out refinance, borrowing against the built-up value of your home to pay for remodeling or other things. And the fact is, you can refinance as often as you want, but some lenders look for a “seasoning” period between home loans, or a certain amount of time between appraisals.

Refinancing doesn't reset the repayment term of your loan, but it does replace your current loan with a new loan. You may be able to choose from different offers for your new loan depending on your goals, including a longer or shorter repayment term.

Refinancing the mortgage on your house means you're essentially trading in your current mortgage for a newer one – often with a new principal and a different interest rate. Your lender then uses the newer mortgage to pay off the old one, so you're left with just one loan and one monthly payment.