REFI done!

We closed on our refinance today!! We have locked in a great rate and gone from a 30 year fixed loan to a 25 year fixed loan and in the process knocked off a year from our mortgage (we were 4 years into the 30 year mortgage). We also paid down our mortgage balance so we now have 30% equity.

We have gone back and forth on what to do with the extra cash available each month from our reduced mortgage payment. I want to throw the extra money at the mortgage, just keep paying the same payment, and Mr. Sam wants to throw the extra money toward our emergency fund until we replenish it (we took a chunk out during the REFI).

Stock

You may have seen the article in CNN.Money.com that according to Warren Buffet's magic metric, now is a good time to buy stock.

Buffet, himself, announced back in October 2008 that he was personally buying stocks.

Not that I make my investing decisions based on what Buffet or his magic metric say or don't say, we bought more stock today when the market dipped.

REFI appraisal

We had the property inspection part of the appraisal completed yesterday. This is probably the 5th appraisal I have been present for and it was certainly the most in depth (likely a result of the down mortgage market). The appraiser measured and photographed each room in our home and our carriage house (we have two structures that make up our primary home). She also inspected each and every closet.

We are in a tough valuation area because (1) our house is historic and unique and therefore hard to compare to other properties (2) our neighborhood is made up of other historic and unique properties so its hard to find recent sales of similar homes to use as comps (3) South Florida is full of short sales and foreclosures which push the values down even if the appraiser can't use those sales in her valuation.