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Show C10 The Salt Lake Tribune BUSINESS . Refinancing Answer Not Always Easy Freddie Mac, chartered by Congress 31 years ago to help stabilize the mortgage market. As a result, refinancing has In recent months, roughlyhalf of mortgage appli- @ Continued from C-4 always a depends.” definitive “it “Because every person’ssit- uation is completely different,” hesaid. Even with 30-year fixed-rate mortgages available at about 7 to 7% percent, the answeris not always obvious. Among the factors to con- sider are whether you will re- cations have come from people wanting to replace higher-rate mortgages, said Robert Van Order, Freddie Mac's chief economist. Has the boom passed? Hardly, said Broadwell. In fact, he said his refinancing business has doubled in the last month, to a common misconception about the economics of the mortgage market: that mortgage rates are tied to the short-term interest rates controlled by the Federal Reserve. Williams Cos. To Buy Barrett For $2.5 Billion @ Continued from C-4 TE months. Barrett must pay Williams a breakupfee of$90.5 millionif it doesn’t go through with the deal. Shell followed the announcementwith a Statement saying it was withdrawing its offer for Barrett. “Shell decided to take this Tuesday, May8, 2001 action because of its unwillingness to increase its offer beyond level that makes economic sense to Shell,” the company said. Williams was one of a few companies that submitted bids last week for Barrett. The company was forced to disclose its interest when Wall Street analysts mistakenly were patched into.a conference call in which board members “Oneof the real attractions from Barrett is the significant opportunities to drill and to build our gas production through the drill bit,” said Keith Bailey, Williams’ chair- man,president and CEO. In a conference call with ‘analysts, Bailey also said Wil- vision bydistributing 400 mil- lion shares to shareholders in the form ofatax-free dividend. Williams Communications transmits signals overits fiber liams “will continue to be op- Portunistic” and may seek to expand through more acquisitions. were discussing a potential bid. Barrett’s presence in the Rocky Mountain region has becomeincreasingly valuable because of declining production in traditional markets of Texas and the GulfofMexico. information about Barrett chairman and CEO Peter Dea's future within the combined company. The deal came two weeks after Williams spun off its Williams Communicationsdi- optic lines for long-distance carriers, Internet providers, news and broadcast centers, Williams plans to retain most of Barrett’s 237 employ- ees andwill notclose its headquarters in Denver, said Steven Malcolm,Williams’ executive vice president. Wili spokeswoman Ellen Averill said she had. no major sports venues and more than 600 television stations. The company got its start whenWilliamsstarted placing fiberoptic cablein pipelines in 1985. main in the house long enough to recoup application fees and closingcosts that, for a $200,000 loan, can easily top $2,000. Anotheris the length of the loan:Ifyou are already 10 years into a 30-year loan,refinancing with a new 30-year loan will have you paying 40 years’ worth PHONES BY ERICSSON S of interest. A good alternative mightbe refinancing to a 15- or 20-year loan—oreven using the lowerrates as a spur to making amove, Well considered and: well timed,thedecision to refinance a mortgage can save thousands of dollars in interest payments ona 15- or 30-year loan. Butjust like investors seek- ing to time the stock market perfectly and buy when, say, Intel or Microsoft hits bottom, homeowners can outguess themselves on: when to refinance, As with stock prices, the mortgage market’s bottom is visible only in hindsight. “There are still people waiting for a certain interest rate, where they'll be ready to rock androll,” Marollasaid. “Alot of people wantratesin the 6's with choose any two no points for a 30-year fixed.” Get her going onthe subject, and Marolla, a loan officer at Philadelphia Financial Mortgage Co., a division of Blue 1000 extra night and Bell’s Madison Bank,can talk in the rapid-fire jargon of a com- modities trader — not about weekend minutes porkbellies, but about customers waiting to jump on a 30-year fixed-rate loan with interest be- or low 7 percent and no “points,” the lump-sum interest assessed in advance under some loan contracts. Economicweaknesstends to 200 extra anytime minutes drive mortgage rates down, and or recent months have been no exception. nationwide long In the seven weeks after Thanksgiving,as signsof trouble emerged and the stock market began to make bearish sounds, the average interest distance included rate for a 30-year mortgage de- clined more than three-quarters of a point, from 7.73 percent on Nov. 22 to 6.89 percent on Jan. 1 Since then, the trend has been,well, hard to call a trend. Rates have climbed a little, dipped little, climbed little, dipped a little. In the past month, they have been slowly climbing again — to a national averageof 7.14 percent on April 19, though theydipped slightly Choose any two ofthese special offers at no additional monthly charge when you sign up for the AT&I Digital Advantage $39.99 monthly plan. 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