Final answer:
To find Ben and Abigail's new monthly payment and savings, the fixed-rate mortgage payment formula is utilized with the given interest rate and loan details. The original monthly payment is subtracted from the new monthly payment to determine the monthly savings. a) new payment: $1,048.82; savings: $173.46
Step-by-step explanation:
To calculate Ben and Abigail's new monthly mortgage payment and their savings after refinancing, a formula known as the monthly payment formula for fixed-rate mortgages is used. This formula is expressed as P = L[c(1 + c)^n]/[(1 + c)^n - 1], where P is the monthly payment, L is the loan amount, c is the monthly interest rate (annual rate divided by 12), and n is the number of payments (loan term in years times 12).
In this case, the loan amount (L) is $150,000, the new annual interest rate is 5.75% (which gives us a monthly rate of c = 5.75/12% = 0.00479167), and the loan term remains at 30 years so n = 30 * 12 = 360 payments.
Plugging these numbers into the formula, we get the new monthly payment (P), and by comparing it to the original payment (R = $1,798.65), we can calculate their monthly savings.