We're heading out in a few minutes, over to an attorney's office to close on our mortgage. We're refinancing to get a lower rate. It's not that I have a big mortgage, less than half the value of the house, it was just a consolidation of the small building loans I got over the years (when interest was cheap) that were ARMs (but I never held them long enough for the interest rates to change) into a fixed rate mortgage when we saw the writing on the wall. I pay less mortgage than most pay in rent. With this refi, we'll save $200/month. Good for us.
That said, I noticed, this time, that all the associated parties (bank, title company, etc) did a lot more thorough background on us than they have in the past. 7 years ago, they were disappointed I didn't want to take 150% of the value out of the house and barely did more than verify my signature. This time, even for as little as we've borrowed, we were subjected to the equivalent of a credit cavity search. It's not that we're taking any more money, just refinancing the little balance we have left.
Just anecdotally, then versus now, I'd say the banks are taking greater care in whom they give a mortgage to.
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