Not just in dollars — in years of your life, vacations, and how much earlier you could have retired.
Not financial advice. Refinancing involves closing costs and resets your loan term — always calculate the full break-even point before deciding. Educational use only. FinanceRateCalc.com
We compare your locked rate against current market rates using standard amortization math. The difference in monthly payment multiplied over your remaining loan term shows your total rate grief — how much your timing decision has cost you in real dollars.
Uses 30-year fixed rate standard amortization. Refinance break-even calculated by dividing closing costs (estimated 2-3% of loan) by monthly savings. Educational use only — not financial advice.
Prices and rates are widely reported. Whether a lender says yes is not. In the complete 2025 federal record, denial rates across the 100 largest FHA lenders ran from 1.8% to 78.7% — same programme, same year.
And it is not simply who applies where: standardizing on state, loan amount, income, debt-to-income and loan-to-value, applicant mix explains only a 2.7× range in expected outcomes.
CFPB HMDA 2025, computed by FinanceRateCalc. Covers the highest-volume lenders published per market, not all lenders. Historical observations, not predictions. CC BY 4.0, not independently reproduced.