Refinancing could save homeowners as much as $50,435

Shopping around for the best deal could save homeowners tens of thousands of dollars over the lifetime of the loan.

But where are the metros where borrowers would save the most by refinancing?

LendingTree analyzed data from 50 major US metros and found that Washington, DC, had the largest potential saving – a median of $50,435 – based on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage with a median loan amount of $305,002.

LendingTree’s Mortgage Rate Competition Index for last week shows 48.2% of purchase borrowers received offers for 30-year FRMs of below 4%; a year ago this was virtually unheard of.

The Index shows a 1.03 percentage point difference between the lowest and highest offers, meaning a potential saving of $48,911 on a $300K loan.

For refinance borrowers, 48.6% received rates below 4%, again this was very rare a year ago. The Index showed a 1.17 percentage point spread with a potential saving of $55,868 on a $300K loan.