LEWISTON – Historically low mortgage rates – some dipping below 5 percent – sent homeowners scrambling Thursday to check in with local lenders.

Bruce Ray, senior vice president at Auburn Savings, said he was busy fielding calls from former clients hoping to lower their monthly payments.

But lenders say prospective borrowers should consider several factors before committing to refinancing. Not every homeowner will profit from such a move – or qualify for it.

Shaving off a quarter of a percentage point may not be worth the expense of refinancing after considering closing costs. Two points, though, could translate to a big savings.

When shopping for rates, consumers should ask for the APR (annual percentage rate) and a “good faith” estimate of closing costs, Ray said. That way, they can compare apples to apples.

Homeowners planning to sell their homes soon should calculate carefully the cost of refinancing, he said.

For those who bought their homes in the past two or three years or refinanced the most they could borrow, the value of their homes may have dropped so much since then that they might not be able to borrow that amount again, said Julie Marquis, chief operating officer at Five County Credit Union, whose office also got “quite a few” calls Thursday.

Not only have rates plummeted to a 50-year low, many home values have dropped as well, she said. In some cases, homeowners may actually owe more than their homes are worth.

Lenders also will be scrutinizing an applicant’s debt-to-income ratio. That means they might decide the applicant can’t afford to pay the monthly premiums if the applicant has a lot of debt and doesn’t earn enough to pay it off.

Lenders will check credit, or FICO, scores that give a credit history, including whether debts are paid on time and what portion of credit card limits has been used up.

That might not help some homeowners hoping to pay down their credit cards using equity in their homes.

The first call should probably be to a financial adviser, Marquis said.

Community bankers may sit down with people and look more closely at their financial situation, said Allen Sterling, president and chief operating officer of Auburn Savings. That doesn’t mean they’re more likely to take greater risks, he said.

“We try to be reasonable,” he said. “It depends on an individual’s circumstances.”

That doesn’t mean local banks write riskier loans. On the contrary, they tend to be more conservative, he said. Some larger banks and mortgage houses were lending to higher risk customers that got them, investors and homeowners, into hot water.

“Lending practices for community banks really haven’t changed,” Sterling said. His loan officers aren’t paid by the loan, so there’s no incentive to lend to people who are likely to have trouble paying it back, he said.

Local lenders say a fixed-rate mortgage is usually the best approach, given the uncertainty of interest rates and the factors that drive them.