Refinancing Rocks Bond Market --- Homeowners Hunting for Deals On Mortgage Rates Unleash Era Of Volatility and Trading Losses
Corrections & Amplifications</br></br>THE SIZE OF THE U.S. BOND market is $19 trillion. The figure used in yesterday's Credit Markets column was $16 trillion.</br></br>(WSJ Aug. 9, 2002)</br></br>LIKE MANY HOMEOWNERS, Bill Kwitman spends his days looking for a cheaper mortgage. And that is keeping some of the biggest financial companies in the country up at night.</br></br>Five times in the past year, Mr. Kwitman, an attorney in Portland, Ore., has refinanced mortgages on different rental properties he owns, saving hundreds of dollars in monthly interest payments. He checks in with an online mortgage lender as often as twice a day, eyeing his next refinancing. With rates tumbling again close to their lowest levels in decades, homeowners such as Mr. Kwitman are gearing up for a new wave of refinancings.