Gary Siegel knows a thing or two about mortgage refinancing. Since buying a five-bedroom colonial home in Potomac, Md., in 1991, the Washington (D. C.) real estate attorney had refinanced three times before this summer. On Aug. 15, with mortgage rates at their lowest level in more than three decades, Siegel did it again: He cut the rate on his jumbo 30-year fixed mortgage from 7(1/8)% to 6(5/8)%. "Rates were the lowest I had ever seen," he marvels. "I saw a great opportunity." Across the nation, homeowners like Siegel are jumping on the refinancing bandwagon, which is picking up the pace again after slowing earlier this year. Indeed, new home loans are expected to nearly match last year's record of about $2.03 trillion―with about half of that coming from refinancings. "2002 will be a blockbuster," says Bradley W. Blackwell, national sales manager at Wells Fargo Co.'s home-mortgage business.
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