Plunging Mortgage Refinancing Rates Aid the Thrifty

(New York Times) — For those sober souls who were thrifty long before it became fashionable, the last few years have been intensely aggravating. They did nothing to cause the recession, but they absorbed the pain. Their stock portfolios languished. The values of their homes skidded. Their savings still do not earn enough interest each month to buy a pack of gum.  Now, at last, the frugal are celebrating. With a leg up on their less creditworthy neighbors, they are qualifying for refinanced home mortgages at interest rates that in any other recent era would have been considered stealing. And unlike in late 2008, when rates started their plunge to historic lows, many lenders say they are rushing to accommodate the influx in applications.

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