Well today we dodged a bullet (maybe a real one!) The President at the 12th hour signed the debt deal which allows the US Treasury to borrow (still) more money to finance our way into the future. This event had mixed reviews in financial markets, but the Bond Market loved it! Interest rates on 10 year Treasuries dropped to their lowest level in many months – down to 2.62% from 2.74% yesterday. This continues the downward trend in interest rates in general and mortgage rates in particular.

Today the 10 year “benchmark” fixed rate loan is going for under 3.5%; the 20 and 30 year fixed rate conforming loans are trading in the low 4′s. Now is a terrific time to refinance.

And this brings me to another thought: many people have refinanced over and over and are always “starting the clock over at 30 years”. Depending upon your situation you might want to consider refinancing into a loan term that matches the remaining time period on your present loan. For example, if you have 18 years left on your loan maybe you refinance in to an 18 year fixed rate loan with a lower interest rate. Or, perhaps you have 26 years left on your term – rather than go to a 30 year term you can refinance into a lower interest rate and keep your 26 year term. We have the capacity to handle this type of financing for you.

Meanwhile back to the economy – I would not stay up late at night worrying about the effects of any possible “downgrading of US securities -at least not for now, as our debt will still be viewed as virtually “zero risk” debt for a while into the future. If we don’t, however, get our government finances under control a day of reckoning will be upon us.

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