Articles Tagged With: Interest Rates

January 22, 2024

Getting A Better FHA Loan Interest Rate

CBS News offers some advice to house hunters in 2024. Are you interested in buying a home with a lower interest rate? CBS has some advice for you, and as their published article reminds us, mortgage rates are falling in early 2024, but there are also ways to enhance your ability to get a lower rate. The CBS report dispenses some advice to help homeowners take advantage of existing options that can earn qualifying borrowers an even lower rate. But is the CBS advice sound? We examine their perspectives on getting a better rate on your home loan below. Shopping Around For A Lender CBS advice includes the idea that it’s best to shop around and find a lender offering the most competitive FHA loan rates and terms. Consider shopping | more...

May 20, 2022

What You Need To Know About FHA Home Loan Interest Rates

By Joe Wallace

What should you know about home loan interest rates? As the home loan market begins to see higher rates than in the last few years, you’ll want to understand some of the aspects of interest rates and how they affect the cost of your mortgage long-term. There are many home loan blogs that discuss the fluctuations of mortgage rates and talk about mortgage rates as they move higher and lower. Some lenders and bloggers discuss mortgage rates as though the ones mentioned apply to anyone who wants a home loan. But is this true? The rates you see advertised on the internet are usually posted as “best execution” interest rates which means that “ideal conditions” are assumed, or that the rates are applied assuming certain conditions including certain FICO score | more...

June 23, 2021

FHA Loan Rates: Three Tips

By Joe Wallace

What do you need to know about FHA loan rates? The interest rate on your mortgage is an important variable you’ll want to think about early in your planning stages. If you don’t run the numbers on how much your mortgage will cost over the lifetime of the loan, you’re at a serious disadvantage when it comes to planning. Calculating the cost of the loan itself is not the same as calculating your monthly mortgage payment. You’ll want to know the fees and expenses you need to pay up front, but you’ll also want to know how much your loan costs you when the interest rate is applied. How much does your loan cost you each year? Each decade? What is the total cost of the loan once it has | more...

March 10, 2021

Get A Lower Interest Rate On Your FHA Home Loan

By Joe Wallace

First-time borrowers might not fully understand how they can get a lower interest rate on their home loans; experienced house hunters who have been through the home buying process before aren’t necessarily at an advantage in this area. No matter whether you have owned a home before or not, it’s smart to focus on what can be done to earn a competitive interest rate on a home loan, home loan refinance, etc. Want A Lower Interest Rate On Your FHA Mortgage? Check Your Credit Scores It’s possible to apply for a home loan without ever looking at your credit report. It’s also a very bad idea to do so. Why? Borrowers who are unaware of the information in their credit reports are not ready to apply for a home loan. | more...

June 11, 2020

Fed Announces Bond Policy Influencing Mortgage Loan Interest Rates

By Joe Wallace

In the second week of June, the Fed announced important policies that influence mortgage rates. FederalReserve.gov published a statement announcing monetary policy from the Federal Open Market Committee including: The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System voted unanimously to maintain the interest rate paid on required and excess reserve balances at 0.10 percent, effective June 11, 2020. As part of its policy decision, the Federal Open Market Committee voted to authorize and direct the Open Market Desk at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to run “open market operations as necessary to maintain the federal funds rate in a target range of 0 to 1/4 percent”; The vote also authorized an “Increase the System Open Market Account holdings of Treasury securities, agency mortgage-backed securities (MBS), and agency | more...

June 10, 2020

Why FHA Loan Interest Rates Are Lower

By Joe Wallace

Have you ever started to research home loans and found yourself getting confused at all the data presented to you? What is the difference between a 30-year fixed rate conventional home loan and a 30-year fixed rate FHA mortgage? How do you know which loan to choose? Buying a home is one of the biggest commitments you can make financially as an ordinary, non-business borrower. The down payment alone makes some borrowers worry they can’t afford the loan (fortunately there may be local down payment assistance programs in your area that can help) or that they won’t be able to understand the intricacies of a mortgage. But buying a home involves a lot more common sense than you might realize. One area this is true for is interest rates–once you | more...

June 3, 2020

Why Your Lender Offered You A Different Interest Rate Than What You Saw Online

By Joe Wallace

House hunters searching for lenders online and comparing home loan interest rates may be seeing rates reported for FHA home loans below the three percent range, and compared to years past those rates are at incredible lows. In the first week of June 2020, FHA mortgage loan interest rates were reported at 2.68%. According to some data aggregators, that percentage represents a 52-week low at press time. The same sources report the high 52-week average for FHA mortgage loan rates at or near 4%. By the time you read this, those numbers will have changed up or down, but as a snapshot of the rates in a given moment in time these numbers are significant. But the low rates you see online are not offered to all loan applicants; do | more...

May 8, 2020

FHA Loans, Interest Rate Cuts, And Your Mortgage

By Bruce Reichstein

Home loan interest rates have been on a wild ride. The Fed cut interest rates in March of 2020–two times in response to coronavirus economic issues. But the Fed rate cut did not mean mortgage loan interest rates were directly cut. Home loan rates move up and down based on market forces, investor behavior, etc. The Fed’s rate cut actions are not a specific trim to home loan rates, but the effects of that rate cut did include influencing how investors did business in the wake of those cuts. It’s easy to assume the Fed has some kind of direct control over home loan rates, but what is the reality? How do home loan rates work and what do you need to know moving forward with your loan application? On | more...

March 12, 2020

Mortgage Rate Trends: Moving Higher

By Joe Wallace

Mortgage loan interest rates dipped to incredible lows, with FHA mortgage rates falling below three percent last week. However, this week mortgage loan interest rates are moving upwards due to multiple factors having to do with bond markets, mortgage-backed securities, etc. What does the average borrower need to know? Last week we discussed the possibility that rates could move higher at any time. That discussion is now playing itself out with FHA mortgage loan interest rates now back above the three percent zone at a reported 3.25% best-scenario rate assuming an ideal borrower with outstanding FICO scores and other financial qualifications. Those who were ready to make an interest rate lock commitment with their lender but instead decided to “float” rather than lock in a mortgage loan interest rate definitely | more...

February 27, 2020

Low Home Loan Interest Rates: How Long Will They Last?

By Joe Wallace

Mortgage loan interest rates and the coronavirus–how low can they go? COVID-19 and coronavirus headlines have, via investor reaction to the headlines and the situation in general, greatly affected mortgage loan interest rates, pushing them to lows not seen in quite some time. Investors are putting more funds in safer investments, which can serve to put downward pressure on mortgage loan interest rates. The rates have fallen to incredible lows in 2020; not many expected rates to fall THIS low and some homeowners are scrambling to refinance and take advantage of lower rates and less costly monthly payments. Some borrowers might feel as if maybe they owe it to themselves to try to buy or refinance with mortgage rates as low as they are now; 3.25% for FHA and VA | more...