One proposal being floated around Washington, D.C., has the Obama administration offering blanket, no-questions-asked refinancing to millions of homeowners struggling to pay their mortgages and avoid foreclosure.

Although it's unlikely to happen, supporters view such a program as a potentially potent method of stimulus in that the savings generated by all those lower monthly mortgage payments would pump, according to their estimates, $50 billion to $60 billion of cash into the economy.

But would it?

Lots of anecdotal evidence suggests borrowers who actually qualify for refinancing -- not exactly the rubber-stamp process it was a few years ago -- are restructuring their loans for vastly different reasons than borrowers who refinanced during the peak years of the U.S. housing boom.

Consequently, refinancing millions of loans wouldn’t necessarily equate to a big jump in consumer spending.

Historically-low mortgage rates have caused a surge in applications to refinance home loans. Indeed, refinancing applications made up 81% of all home-loan activity last week, according to figures released Wednesday by the Mortgage Bankers Association.

That’s not surprising considering rates on 30-year loans have been hovering around 4.5% for weeks, the lowest such rates in decades.

Here’s the thing, though: Experts say consumer psychology has completely reversed itself in the wake of the worst financial crisis in decades. In the euphoric years before the subprime mortgage market collapsed, bursting the U.S. housing bubble and threatening to topple the global economy, homeowners routinely refinanced their home loans solely to extract cash to blow on all manner of frivolous expenditures. 

That was fine when home values were increasing 15% annually. But that’s decidedly no longer the case.

Now the evidence suggests homeowners are using the savings generated by a successful refinancing not to buy a sweet new car, take a luxury vacation or purchase that second home, but rather to pay down existing debt.

Anthony Hsieh, the founder and CEO of online lender LoanDepot.com, calls this new breed of refinancer “survivors.”

“These consumers are survivors of this market and they don’t want to become one of the casualties they’ve read about or seen on the news. They’re hanging on to their money and putting it to work in a smart way,” Hsieh said.

Hsieh noted some other fundamental differences between this surge in refis and past surges. While demand is currently strong because so many homeowners are struggling to meet their monthly payments, successful applications are relatively low in comparison to past years because lenders have tightened their standards.

“The majority of the people out there don’t qualify for refinances,” said Hsieh, noting that home values have fallen dramatically and many homeowners’ loans are now greater than the value of their homes, a condition known as being ‘underwater.’

The tough job market has also held down the number of refinance approvals.

The most significant change, however, is in the mind set of borrowers.

“In the boon days consumers were a lot less conscientious about financial planning and more concerned with lowering their monthly payment. They were comfortable with taking on more debt to buy a second home, go on vacation or buy a car. They were desensitized to the principle amount,” Hsieh said.

That’s because everybody believed -- falsely it turned out -- that home prices would continue to rise forever. Thus cash taken out on a refinance today would be magically repaid tomorrow as the value of the home increased.

“Today were seeing the exact opposite” mindset, said Hsieh. “It’s amazing how an economic recession can lead to much more conservative behavior.”

Now borrowers are far more concerned with lowering the amount of their principle rather than simply reducing their monthly payments.

Louis Spagnuolo, vice president of mortgage banking at WCS Lending in Boca Raton, Fla., said he’s seen the same dynamic at work.

“One hundred percent,” he said. “People are realizing they have to pay that money back and it’s best to have as little debt as possible.”

Citing an often-used analogy, Spagnuolo said that before the housing collapse people were using their homes as “piggy banks.” Not any more.

Both Hsieh and Spagnuolo conceded that the abrupt shift by refinancers toward a more conservative approach won’t help the economic recovery in the short-term. But they say the new mindset is better for the long-term health of the economy.

“It’s long overdue,” said Spagnuolo. “You have less people defaulting on obligations rather than this whole irrational exuberance.”

Added Hsieh: “Certainly when (consumers) are hanging on to their money it doesn’t help the other end of the economy. But it avoids that person going into foreclosure if the economy becomes softer. And certainly more foreclosures are not good for the economic recovery.”