2.75%
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As of January, I've been mortgage free for ten years.
Also, it doesn't hurt that I pay no property taxes on my home.
How are schools and local services funded?
My property tax pays town and county owned roads, cops, fire, ambulance, garbage pickup, library, and schools. I’m sure you have all those services. How are they paid for there?
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I have homestead exemption on my home. I do pay property tax on the house my daughter lives in and I pay a small amount of property tax on the 23 acres next to my home (I had that assessed as timberland). We pay through the nose in sales tax, which is combined 10% (state and parish). I also pay state income tax, but very little, since LASERS pensions are exempt from state tax.
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2.75% for a home mortgage?
I pay 1.1%. If I'd get a new mortgage today, I could get 0.9%.
I haven't looked into this closely - so I may be talking about of my ass. But the mortgage industry in the U.S. has a bunch of regulation in it that likely drives up the cost for some borrowers and lowers it for others.
Most mortgages are bought up and guaranteed by public entities (Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae) - and they have very stringent and blunt criteria on how you qualify for a mortgage.
A lot of lenders don't run their own risk models - they just to conform to the Freddie/Fannie standards to make sure they can resell the mortgage.
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I'll likely pull the trigger on this soon
Please don't use gun analogies, they trigger me.
I gotta bite the bullet and apologize. I didn't have you in my sights when I made my comment, but that's no excuse.
Next time I'll think through and reload if I think the comment will hit the wrong mark.
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If you are thinking about a mortgage or even a re-fi, do it now. The backlog is insane. It will be two weeks minimum until an underwriter even looks at the paperwork. The loan officer told me to expect up tp 72 days or longer until we close.
The rates are driving this volume of mortgages and re-fi's.