About 18% of Mortgages Could Be Refinanced in '09

Washington, DC, March 25, 2009--Lower interest rates will entice about 18% of all U.S. households with mortgages to refinance this year, Jay Brinkmann, chief economist of the Mortgage Bankers Association, told the Wall Street Journal.

Brinkmann said that rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages for borrowers with strong credit records should range from 4.6% to 4.75% at least through the summer. Recently, those rates have hovered between about 4.75% and 5%, down from 6% in mid-November.

Brinkmann estimated that 9.5 million households will refinance this year. The total number of households with mortgages is about 52 million.