krellor

Those were the median in 2023:

Total loan costs, which include origination fees and discount points, also increased between 2022 and 2023, with faster increases for Hispanic white and Black borrowers. The median total loan costs for home purchase loans in 2023 was $6,684, up by 12.2 percent from $5,954 in 2022. The median total loan costs for refinance loans reached $7,329 in 2023, compared to $4,979 in 2022–a 47.2 percent increase. Notably, Hispanic white and Black borrowers experienced faster increases in the median total loan costs for home purchase loans in 2023 compared to 2022 than Asian and non-Hispanic white borrowers.

https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/cfpb_2023-mortgage-market-activity-and-trends_2024-12.pdf

Like any median, it’s the 50/50 midpoint, so some payed less others more, but it is usually in the range of 3-6% of principal.

Most folks have already hit the highlights like Linux support, customer service, pricing, etc. another I haven’t seen is the toolkit for devs and server hosts. I host a ton of game servers, and for most steam games it really is a trivial cookie cutter application of steamcmd to get a Linux dedicated server up and going. And because the devs built for the platform, the admin features all often use simple steam IDs for game permissions, making it easy to manage that functionality as well with a group of friends.

Basically, a ton of things just work consistently. Not to mention the pricing and early access fosters a lot of creativity. And my barotrauma, enshrouded, ut2004, TTT, prop hunt, vrising, etc servers are all basically an identical launch config with a slightly different appid and it all just works.

You don’t get that from the pirated versions or from gog generally.

What you’re saying is mostly correct but the conclusion that a 0.25% rate reduction could pay off in less than a year is overly optimistic for most any borrower in the US mortgage market.

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/data-research/research-reports/data-spotlight-the-impact-of-changing-mortgage-interest-rates/

Using their example:

As interest rates fall, millions of borrowers may be able to refinance and get more affordable payments. As interest rates eased down to 6.5%, about 2.5 million borrowers could already refinance and save at least 75 basis points (0.75%) on their interest rate, according to data from ICE Mortgage Technology. A reduction in rate from 7.25% to 6.5% would result in a $200 monthly savings on a $400,000 loan with a similar term. If interest rates fall to 5.5%, more than 7 million borrowers can potentially refinance, and over 5 million of these refi candidates got their mortgages in the past three years.

So a .75% reduction saves $200 a month on their example mortgage, meaning that to make a refinance break even in less than a year would require origination and other fees to be less that 12*$200 = $2,400, and that’s with 3x greater reduction in rate than your statement.

Given that the 2023 median refinance fees were around $7,000, often ranging from 3%-6% of the principal, you would need a more substantial rate reduction to break even on 0.25 in one year, and in that range would likely have a 8-10 year break even.

Which is fine if you strongly expect to stay in the house for at least that long.

Note: while pre-approval letters didn’t generally obligate you to use that lender, the general statement that a contract isn’t a contract until money changes hands isn’t correct as consideration under a contract can take many forms, so talk to a lawyer about your specific situation.

The rest of the advice is good. Shop around for mortgages, look at mortgage brokers and credit unions, keep your old payment to accelerate payment (though it might be better to invest the difference depending on rates), and to run the numbers for your actual mortgage as the refinance market changes is all sound.