A house with a mortgage is encumbered by a lien, which must be removed before the title can be transferred. To remove the lien you must pay off the mortgage. To

A house with a mortgage is encumbered by a lien, which must be removed before the title can be transferred. To remove the lien you must pay off the mortgage. To pay off the mortgage, someone else has to lend you money, and nobody is willing to lend money at 3% when the Fed funds rate is 4.5%. The fee would be so large it wouldn’t be worth it, because it would cost the same as traditional refinancing at prevailing rates, there’s no way around refinancing in this scenario.