Today’s 30-Year Refinance Rates

How Bankrate's mortgage rates are calculated

Lenders nationwide provide weekday mortgage rates to our comprehensive national survey to bring you the most current rates available. Here you can see the latest marketplace average rates for a wide variety of purchase loans. The interest rate table below is updated daily to give you the most current purchase rates when choosing a home loan. APRs and rates are based on no existing relationship or automatic payments. For these averages, the customer profile includes a 740 FICO score and a single family residence. To learn more, see understanding Bankrate's rate averages.

Why trust Bankrate?

Bankrate has been the authority in personal finance since it was founded in 1976 as the “Bank Rate Monitor,” a print publication for the banking industry. Bankrate has been surveying and collecting mortgage rate information from the nation’s largest lenders for more than 30 years. Hundreds of top publications, such as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CNBC and others, depend on Bankrate as a trusted source of financial information, so you know you’re getting information you can trust.

What is a 30-year fixed refinance mortgage?

A 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is the most common type of loan. It has a set rate, which keeps your principal and interest payments stable.

Refinancing with a 30-year loan allows you to pay off and replace your existing loan with a new, longer-term loan and a different rate. There are several reasons to refinance into this type of loan, including reducing your monthly payment, lowering your mortgage rate or changing the type of loan you currently have.

When is it the right time to refinance?

There are two common reasons to refinance: to reduce monthly mortgage payments or to save on the overall interest you pay on your house over the long term. In some cases, refinancing will accomplish both of those goals, but not always. With rates at record lows, millions of homeowners could benefit from refinancing. Here are a few things to consider when deciding if it's the right time to refinance:

• The purpose of the refinance: Extending the length of your loan will lower your monthly payments while increasing the interest you pay over the life of the loan. Shortening the length of the loan will lower the interest you pay over the life of the loan but often increase your monthly payments. It's important to know what you want to accomplish when deciding whether or not it’s time to refi.
• How long you'll be in the home: Refinancing generally only makes sense if you plan to spend several more years in your home. It can sometimes take years to break even on the cost of refinancing. If you won’t be in your home for much longer, it might not make sense to refinance.
• Your ability to qualify: Refinancing might make sense for you, but that doesn't necessarily mean you'll qualify. Lenders take into account a number of factors when considering a refinance on a home, including the amount of equity in the home, your income and your creditworthiness.

Of course, there are several other purposes for choosing to refinance. A common reason is to tap into home equity. If you have enough equity in your home (at least 20%), you can use a cash-out refinance to pay for expenses such as home improvements, to get rid of credit card debt or to pay for emergencies. Specifically, opting for a 30-year cash-out refinance not only provides a chunk of cash for major expenses, but it also frees up cash-flow on a month-to-month basis.

When to consider a 30-year refinance over other terms

A 30-year refinance term comes with a slew of benefits. But whether you should refinance, or "refi," into a longer or shorter term depends on your financial situation.

Refinancing into a 30-year term from a shorter term — say, a 15-year fixed-rate term — can be worthwhile if you're interested in lowering your monthly payment. It's even more favorable if you can lock in a lower interest rate and improve your financial situation in some way.

For example, let's say you have a 15-year mortgage loan of $100,000 at an interest rate of 5%. Your monthly principal and interest payments would be $791. If you were to refinance your loan into a 30-year mortgage at a rate of 3.5%, you'd lower your monthly payments by nearly $350. That calculation doesn't include expenses like property taxes, homeowner's insurance or HOA fees, or closing costs including points, but it's a good example of how refinancing into a longer term can free up monthly cash flow.

It’s important to keep in mind that refinancing into a longer term will increase the interest you pay over the life of the loan, since you're essentially starting your loan from scratch. In addition, you may have to pay lender origination fees, third-party fees for appraisal and closing costs, which increases the cost of the loan even further.

Using a refi to get a shorter term would save you from paying additional interest costs and potentially lower your interest rate. It could, however, boost the overall monthly payment of your loan.

Before you decide to refinance, figure out your goal for doing so and match the term of the loan with your financial situation.

Pros and cons of a 30-year fixed refinance loan

Main pros of a 30-year refi:

• Lower monthly payments: By stretching out the loan over three decades, you get lower monthly payments compared with shorter loan terms.
• Provides more monthly cash flow: If you need money to pay down student loans or invest, the 30-year fixed gives you the most flexibility.
• Plenty of choices: The 30-year fixed is the most popular type of mortgage, so there’s no shortage of lenders and loan programs to choose from.

Main cons of a 30-year refi:

• More total interest paid over the life of the loan: Those lower payments come with a downside -- you’re paying a lot of interest over the term of a 30-year loan.
• Longer terms have slightly higher mortgage rates overall: Lenders are taking on more risk by extending a rate for three decades, so 30-year loans carry higher interest rates than 15-year loans.
• It takes longer to gain equity: The amortization schedule on a 30-year loan is front-loaded with interest, so it’ll be years before you start paying down principal in a significant way.

How do I view personalized 30-year fixed refinance rates?

You can see personalized 30-year fixed refinance rates plus articles, calculators, prequalified offers and more, all within a single space by signing up for a free Bankrate account. It only takes a few minutes and you’ll get valuable tools and information tailored around your unique interests.