More homeowners have refinanced over the past year to take advantage of ultra-low mortgage rates. The main motivation to refinance is to lower a monthly payment, but refinancers also have other reasons.
According to a survey by LendingTree, homeowners also said they refinanced to pay off their mortgage faster, to get cash-out refinancing, to change an adjustable-rate mortgage to a fixed-rate mortgage, and to lower monthly housing payments.
LendingTree researchers analyzed refinancing requests from the start of this year to determine how popular each of these reasons was across the nation’s 50 largest metro areas.
For example, they found that the largest share of homeowners considering refinancing in order to lower their monthly house payments are in San Jose, Calif.; San Francisco; and Las Vegas. On the other hand, most homeowners who considered refinancing to pay off their mortgage faster are in Buffalo, N.Y., Hartford, Conn., and Pittsburgh.
Homeowners who considered refinancing to change an adjustable-rate mortgage to a fixed-rate mortgage are primarily located in San Jose, Calif., San Francisco, and Boston.
View this breakdown to see the top reasons depending on where you live.