Refinancing Worksheet

Should you refinance your mortgage?

Whenever interest rates drop, the appeal of refinancing your mortgage grows. But it's important to know the real costs -- and potential savings -- before making a move.

To help, U.S. News has teamed up with HSH Associates, a leading publisher of mortgage and consumer loan information, to offer this easy-to-use, interactive refinancing worksheet. Homeowners can see how their existing mortgage payments might change if they were to refinance, and, just as important, how long it would take to recover any closing costs associated with refinancing.

Instructions. Just fill in the non-colored boxes with the requested information. As you tab or mouse-click through the boxes, your results will appear automatically in the colored boxes. You can change any of your entries, in case you want to try several different scenarios, but you must tab or mouse-click to another box to update your results. To use the worksheet, JavaScript must be enabled on your browser.

Prepaying: if you want to see the effect of prepayments on a mortgage, we recommend you download
The Home Buyer's Calculator for Windows. It's free, courtesy of Wheatworks Software.

Information on your CURRENT mortgage
What was the month in which this mortgage originated?	January February March April May June July August September October November December
What was the year in which this mortgage originated?
What was the original amount of this mortgage?
What is the term of this mortgage?	year
What is the interest rate?
Information on your NEW mortgage
What is the mortgage amount? (The value at right is the calculated amount you currently owe)
What is the term of this mortgage?	year
What is the interest rate?
What are your estimated closing costs, including any points paid upfront?

The Results
Your current monthly payment is
Your new monthly payment will be
If you refinance now, your monthly payments will be reduced by
It will take this long to "break even," or recover closing costs on the new mortgage

Mortgage analysis	CURRENT LOAN	NEW LOAN
Number of payments made so far
Number of remaining payments at refinance date
Total interest paid as of refinance date
Total unpaid interest at refinance date

This worksheet was created by U.S. News in conjunction with HSH Associates.