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Seven easy ways to reduce your mortgage payment

July 9, 2021

If you currently pay private mortgage insurance with a conventional loan, you may be able to remove it.

Home values have increased dramatically, so your loan balance may now be 80 percent or less of today’s value. Check with your mortgage company about the process. You most likely will need to order an appraisal.

The private mortgage insurance comes off automatically once the loan balance is 78 percent of the purchase price, but you don’t need to wait until then.

In Delaware, you can request a deduction in the school taxes portion of your property taxes. Requirements are that it is your primary home, you have lived in Delaware for at least three years and are age 65 or older.

Check out your homeowner’s insurance. Inquire about lower rates from bundling your auto insurance with your homeowner’s insurance, or go with a higher deductible.

You could possibly recast your loan. Check with your lender if you intend to pay a significant payment toward your principal. There are some lenders that allow this. The payment is reduced in relation to the new loan balance.

You could refinance your loan for the exact amount of years you have remaining on your current loan. If you go with a lower interest rate than you are paying now, your payment will go down as well.

You can request to have your escrows waived. This way you pay only the principal and interest each month. You would pay the homeowner’s insurance and property taxes as they come due. Overall it is not a reduction, but it helps with monthly cash flow.

If your current loan is FHA, you are paying a mortgage insurance premium. If you think your loan balance is 80 percent or less than the value of your home, it would be a good idea to check into refinancing into a conventional loan. In recent years, the FHA loan product has the MIP attached to the loan for the entire 30-year tern.

JoAnn Moore is a licensed mortgage originator, NMLS #165477, for The Mortgage Market of Delaware LLC, Georgetown. For more information, call 302-855-1306 or 302-236-1229, or email MMODJoAnn@aol.com.

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