October 20, 2015
Monday saw mortgage loan interest rates hold steady after the weekend, keeping things more or less where they’ve been since Thursday. That keeps 30-year fixed rate conventional mortgages, best execution, in the 3.75% to 3.875% range we’ve been talking about for three days now.
At the time of this writing, FHA mortgage loan rates are holding steady at 3.5% best execution, and the longer they stay the more it seems this is the new comfort zone (again, best execution) for FHA mortgage loan interest rates. Keep in mind that FHA rates may vary more among participating lenders, so it is a very good idea to shop around for the most competitive rates.
And as always, “best execution” refers to situations where the loan applicant is extremely well-qualified, with outstanding FICO scores, loan repayment history, etc. The rates you see here may not be available to all borrowers or from all lenders. Your experience may vary.
When it comes to getting a mortgage rate lock commitment with your lender or “floating” in hopes of a better rate, general advice trends from industry professionals seems to contain the word “lock” quite a bit. The reasons vary depending on the person giving the opinion, of course, but in general with rates as low as they are now combined with a bit of uncertainty as to what might happen in the next week or two, it makes sense to follow the lock advice if you’re comfortable with the rate you’re being offered.
There aren’t any major Fed policy announcement-style events this week that could potentially move rates higher, but breaking news and the unexpected always have the potential to change things. It may be calm and quiet for now, but things can always change. Make your lock/float choices with as much information and good advice as possible.
Do you work in residential real estate? You should know about the free tool offered by FHA.com. It’s designed especially for real estate websites–a widget that displays FHA loan limits for the counties serviced by those websites.
It is easy 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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