The One Where "The Grass Is Greener": Frustration

The Grass Is Greener: Frustration
Today I was reading one of my new favorite blogs, The Grass is Greener. She and her husband have worked their fannies off and have paid off everything but their mortgage debt.
She looked at trying to refinance through the HARP program, which seems like a great program because tons of people are unable to refinance without upping the LTV maxes.

I live in one of the "bust" areas and I work in a bank, I've seen it all lately. Anyway, go to her blog to read the whole story, but I contacted my lender in order to see if it was possible. This is the only way to lower our rate, as we won't have 20% equity in our home for quite awhile, and that's assuming a market rebound.

I talked to a very nice man from B of A, who said that I could get 5.125% fixed. We are already at 6.00%, so this is merely to lower our payment. However, that turkey said there was a 2 point buydown!!!! Automatically, after the points, and the per diem, and the impound account that they would require, it would add over 13K to my loan balance. Which, based on my savings per month, it would take me 4 years to recoup. The market could rebound and give us 20% equity in four years. So I turned Michael down.