Welcome to Jill on Money. It is a bonus episode.

Hey, interest rates are lower.

Mortgage rates have dropped substantially.

So should you refi? That's what I discussed this

week on CBS this morning. Here's the segment.

And this morning's eye on money how low mortgage rates could help homeowners cut their costs. The

average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is 3.65 percent. That's down almost a full

percentage point from the same time a year ago.

Almost 63% of mortgage applicants are homeowners looking to refinance.

CBS News Business analyst, Jill Schlesinger is here with some advice. If you are thinking about refinancing,

Jill, good morning. Good morning. So if you are thinking about refinancing, what do you need to know here?

Well, obviously rates are lower, and so if you've got a higher rate than that 3.65% that might sort of peak your interest.

But as you know, every single deal when it comes to a mortgage involves costs and closing costs on a refi can be 2 to 5% of the loan amount.

I should also note that when we talk about these great rates 3.65%, it's great if you've got great credit.

And usually that means in the mid 700s or so.

So what you want to do is run the numbers,

see how long it will take you to break even so if your payment goes down how many

months do you have to be in that house because if you're going to move in a

couple years may not make sense to refinance a lot of people are doing kind of

debt triage they got the mortgage debt they've got the credit card debt, they got the

student loan debt.

Can you refinance the mortgage to pay off other stuff?

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