Mortgage refinancing is more popular than ever. Low interest rates and a bad housing market have made many homeowners look into a refinance. Here is some information that can help you plan for a home loan refinance.

1) Know why you wish to refinance your mortgage. Do you want lower monthly payments? Want to switch from an ARM loan into a fixed rate mortgage? Need to get cash back from the equity in your home? There are a lot of reasons a homeowner can want a refinancing. Knowing what you want, and need to come from a refinance is crucial, and will help you navigate the different options available to you.

2) Determine what the current average interest rates are for mortgages. Typically, a homeowner only needs to save 1% or more on their interest rates to see a lot of savings. These days though, mortgage interest rates are so low that many homeowners will be able to get a much lower interest rate than they have now.

3) In order to get approved for a mortgage refinancing, it always helps to have good credit, equity in your home, or both. Another important factor is how consistent you have been on making your mortgage payments, both on time and in full. Also, it is important that you set a new budget, and can prove that you will be able to make the new monthly mortgage payments.

4) Find the right mortgage lender or bank for you. Always compare the costs, benefits, and disadvantages of a variety of mortgage lenders. Lenders and banks have policies and fees that are wildly different from each other. Finding the right home loan for you starts with finding the correct mortgage lender or bank.

5) Always know the total costs and fees of a home loan refinancing before you sign anything. Also, try to pay as much as possible upfront so that you are not paying interest payments on their closing costs for the l

There are more than 100 major rating agencies around the world, and three of the largest and most important ones in the United States are Fitch Ratings, Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s. A debt issuer’s credit rating is very similar to the FICO score of an individual rated by the Fair Isaac Corporation widely used in the United States by institutional lenders. Of greater importance to the housing market, the credit rating agencies also analyze and rate the creditworthiness of the various tranches of collateralized debt obligations traded in the secondary mortgage market.

Credit ratings are widely used by investors because they provide a convenient tool for comparing the credit risk among various investment alternatives. The analysis of risk is crucial in determining the interest rate a syndicator will need to offer to attract sufficient investment capital. From the other side of the transaction, it is important to the investor who is comparing the interest rates being offered by various investments. The ratings agencies provide this critical, third-party analysis both sides of the transaction can rely upon for unbiased, accurate information. When the ratings agencies are doing their job well, there is greater efficiency in capital markets as syndicators of securities are obtaining maximum market values, and investors are minimizing their risks. This efficiency in the capital markets leads to better resource utilization and stronger economic growth.

Unfortunately for many investors in collateralized debt obligations during the Great Housing Bubble, the ratings agencies did not provide an accurate or credible rating of many CDO tranches. When the housing market pricing declined, many CDO tranches were subsequently downgraded. In defense of the agencies, they were providing an analysis of risk based on existing market conditions. Their reports contained caveats concerning downside risks in the event market conditions changed, but this list of risks is standard in any analysis and widely ignored by investors who are counting on the rating to be a market forecasting tool rather than the market reporting tool it really is. Credit rating agencies are not in the business of market forecasting or evaluating systemic risks.

There is a deeper problem with the ratings agencies that began to surface in the Great Housing Bubble. Ratings agencies used to charge investors for their risk analysis, but there was a transition to charging the issuers instead. As one might imagine, there are reports that ratings agencies were concerned if they gave CDOs poor ratings, their primary source of income would go elsewhere. This put pressure on the agencies to overlook certain problems or merely list them as footnotes to their reports rather than lower a rating due to a foreseeable contingency such as a decline in house prices.