February 29, 2016
Mortgage rates moved higher on Friday, pushing closing costs up for some, actual rates up for others. At the end of the day many were still offering a best execution 3.625% for 30-year fixed rate conventional mortgage loans. FHA mortgage loan rates are holding in a range between 3.25% and 3.5% depending on the lender and other factors. FHA mortgage loan rates tend to vary more among participating lenders than conventional rates, so your experience may vary.
As always, the rates mentioned here are best execution rates, meaning your FICO scores, loan repayment history and other financial qualifiers will play a big role in your access to rates at or near the ones listed here. Best execution rates are not available to all borrowers or from all lenders.
Even though there has been a move higher, mortgage rates are still very close to long-time lows and many industry professionals say that in general, locking at the moment isn’t a bad idea considering how low rates are.
If you are within 30 days of closing now could be a good time to lock. Discuss this with your loan officer and get some sound advice before proceeding. Floating, which is defined as holding off on getting a mortgage rate lock commitment with the lender in hopes of getting a more competitive interest rate, is never without risk. Your “risk tolerance” should help you decide whether or not now is the right time to lock or float.
And the factors that could affect mortgage loan rates (for better OR worse) this week are plentiful–there is an “Existing Home Sales” report due to come out Tuesday, followed by a “New Home Sales” report on Wednesday. Thursday and Friday are also important days thanks to scheduled economic data releases that could also affect mortgage loan rates depending on investor reaction to the information in those releases.
Do you work in residential real estate? You should know about the free tool offered by FHA.com. It is designed especially for real estate websites; a widget that displays FHA loan limits for the counties serviced by those sites. It is simple to spend a few seconds customizing the state, counties, and widget size for the tool; you can copy the code and paste it into your website with ease. Get yours today:
http://www.fha.com/fha_loan_limits_widget
Joe Wallace has been specializing in military and personal finance topics since 1995. His work has appeared on Air Force Television News, The Pentagon Channel, ABC and a variety of print and online publications. He is a 13-year Air Force veteran and a member of the Air Force Public Affairs Alumni Association. He was Managing editor for www.valoans.com for (8) years and is currently the Associate Editor for FHANewsblog.com.
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