March 16, 2016
Mortgage rates improved a bit on Wednesday after the Fed made its much anticipated statement-one that included no discussion of a further raise in interest rates for now. How much changed today depends greatly on the lender, and some may see the difference in terms of closing costs as opposed to an outright shift in the mortgage loan interest rate. The improvement wasn’t dramatic, but in light of the recent upward trend, any recovery is welcome, however small.
30-year fixed rate conventional mortgages are still basically reported in a best execution range between 3.75% and 3.875%. FHA mortgage loan interest rates are still holding in the comfort zone range between 3.25% and 3.5% that we have been reporting for many days now.
FHA mortgage loan rates are often slower to adjust than conventional mortgage loan rates, and as we often remind borrowers, FHA rates can vary more among participating lenders than conventional counterparts.
Best execution rates are not available to all borrowers or from all lenders. Your ability to get the interest rates you see listed here depends greatly on FICO scores and other financial qualifications. Your experience may vary.
The lock/float issue is a bit tricky here. After days of sustained upward movement, nobody is quite sure what happens next–some advise carefully thinking about floating in the short term, while others aren’t so sure. It’s true that rates could remain at sub-four percent levels a while longer in spite of the upward trend, but that assumes that breaking news, economic data releases at home OR overseas won’t play a significant role in resuming upward pressure on mortgage rates.
Floating is never without a degree of risk and in the current environment it helps to determine what your “risk tolerance” is. How high will rates go before you decide to work with the lender and get a mortgage loan interest rate lock? That is an important part of a floating strategy if you choose not to make a mortgage loan interest rate commitment with the lender hoping rates will drop a bit lower first. Get as much advice as you can before deciding as the more informed you are before choosing, the better of you will be.
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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