I found this mortgage comparison tool at Bankrate to be really helpful in figuring out whether to pay points or not. I was in a similar situation (trying to decide when to lock and watching rates go lower and lower but hearing they were going to higher...) Hope it helps you decide! Here is a link that might be useful: Bankrate.com Mortgage Point Advisor

Hi again, well-behaved kelton, If you plan to borrow to invest for any but a short term, I strongly suggest that you arrange an iron-clad non-variable rate deal. It seems to me that, with a large proportion of local debt held abroad, soon the borrowers will be forced to pay much higher rates if they hope to seduce the lenders into parting with their precious money. I bought my first stock, an oil co., about 45 years ago: it was bought out, after a few years. I bought a non-equity mutual fund, for a special situation, about 34 years ago. Later I bought various equity-based mutual funds - mainly about the time that I sold a variety of them, 25 years ago: most recent such purchase was about 17 years ago. Despite mutual funds' managers' claims to skills at asset management, very few of them have proved able to outperform the market averages consistently ... but they get their fixed percentage of the funds under their management, whether *or not* they succeed in producing above average - or any - increased values for the owners of the money that they are managing. I've bought only a few stocks over several recent years, thinking the prices too high, until about 2005, then more early in 2006, when I bought our largest telco, then more of it near the end of last year, prior to the conclusion of a buyout proposal to take it private at a higher price. Now, after much huffing and puffing ... that deal appears to have fallen through: share price dropped to below my cost for either purchase. As many major Canadian miners have been bought out in recent years, I bought shares of a substantial miner early this year and more recently, after a substantial drop in price, using most of my available liquid assets. Still more drop, since. Unwisely, in a market moving down, I bought some small, speculative companies' shares last year and earlier this year: *not* to do that in an uncertain market! Their prices have gone down, too. It appeared that the telco deal would conclude soon, providing some more funds with which to invest for the next while ... but probably that's not going to happen. My long-time unused Line of Credit (fully secured by mutual fund and stock certificates) rate was 4.75% (variable) a few weeks ago. I'll likely draw on it soon to buy some more carefully chosen stocks. As I expect to get no fresh money from the telco deal and thus expect that I'll draw on the line of credit sooner than I'd expected earlier, and it looks as though the low market may well persist longer than I'd expected, I'm having some more share and mutual fund certificates issued in order to allow myself a higher limit on the Line of Credit. How soon will I likely buy again? Don't know - probably after about six months. Or - after it appears fairly conclusive that the market's recent successive drops have finished. If there appear to be some bargains available: as one mutual fund manager said, 25 years ago, "I like to buy a dollar for 60 cents". How much? Don't know. How long will I continue? Don't know that, either. Death/prolonged illness hasn't given any indication as to when s/he/they may show up. Maybe I'll notify you when one of them does. I hope that you're having a week that you can remember with appreciation and (continuing) thankfulness. ole joyful P.S. Business/markets don't like uncertainty. Our Prime Minister became so as he's the chosen leader of the political party that won the most seats in Parliament following an election about 6 weeks ago, an elction that he called unnecessarily early ... but his party holds less than a majority of votes in Parliament. Last week, a couple of weeks after the new Parlaiment started, the financial minister made a report that so angered the three disparate Opposition parties ... .. that they've (improbably) united ... ... and may win a vote of non-confidence in his governing capability, early next week ... it was to have been last Monday, but he forced a postponement. Now, he may shut down the Parliament for a while, to avoid getting outvoted (the equivalent of fired). He has a minority of votes, remember? But, lacking some major changes, he may get fired soon, anyway. While I'm watching ... ... I think that I'll not be buying any Canadian stocks for a while. Canadian Dollar being undervalued ... and U.S. Dollar overvalued, I don't want to exchange to buy U.S. stocks now, either. Unless I can borrow with U.S. Dollar account. Better buy gold (stocks), I guess. Gold will soon be worth more than fog-backed paper dollars. ole joyfoul

Hi Bellaflora, Maybe... but not so much as to likely make too much of a difference anymore. Certainly no longer worth the risk of floating unecessarily. I've been calling for rates to drop & penetrate the 2003 lows almost since we left those lows... MUCH to the great derision of several malingerers hereabouts. I am officially shifting my bias, right now. I think we are at, or very near the realistic alltime lows. I still expect 30 FRMs to stay at or under the 7%s for the rest of our lifetimes (and likely our grandkids' lifetimes,) and I expect them to stay under 6% for at least the next 5-8 years. I do not think there's much serious downside to be found from here, though. Cheers, Dave Donhoff Leverage Planner

Hi jmjmommy, Shall I schpiel the techno-market mumbo jumbo... or just give the clifnotes version? (Grrr... the HTML photo insert function doesn't seem to be happy... so click the URL below to see what I'm explaining in visuals.) The short strokes; Rates improved by a major "leap" forward about 2 weeks ago, and the market had to take a few steps back (rates rising almost back to where they were) to "digest" the improvements so they could stably remain and/or continue the improvement trend. Nobody can guarantee where any free-market rate or price level will be at a specific future point... but sometimes we can have pretty high degrees of certainty or probability of expectations. My call: Rates will remain roughly where they are for several days or even a week or two, and begin dribbling downward (volatily, not in any comfortable manner) from there. PS. that means the bond pricing you see on the chart will remain stable to going UPWARDS... the opposite of the 'yield,' or rates. Cheers, Dave Donhoff Leverage Planner Here is a link that might be useful: Rate market activity