{"id":191,"date":"2014-01-14T09:18:09","date_gmt":"2014-01-14T16:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/financegourmet.com\/blog\/banking\/finding-the-lowest-mortgage-interest-rates\/"},"modified":"2015-03-02T12:23:55","modified_gmt":"2015-03-02T19:23:55","slug":"finding-the-lowest-mortgage-interest-rates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financegourmet.com\/blog\/banking\/finding-the-lowest-mortgage-interest-rates\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding the Lowest Mortgage Interest Rates"},"content":{"rendered":"

Refinancing a mortgage or getting a new mortgage isn\u2019t necessarily just about finding the lowest interest rate<\/a>.\u00a0 But, you definitely want to know what interest rates are in general when shopping around for a mortgage.\u00a0 That way, you know who is way out of the ballpark, and who is worth looking into a little bit further.<\/p>\n

\"finance-guys\"<\/a>One of the best tools around for information on current interest rates is a website called Bankrate.\u00a0 Bankrate.com publishes a survey of national mortgage interest rates every Tuesday morning.\u00a0 Even more useful, is a weekly expert analysis of mortgage rates<\/a>.\u00a0 This analysis can include everything from whether or not they think rates will be going up or down in the near future, to commentary on what happened last week and what affect it had on mortgage rates for the current week.<\/p>\n

This information can be a simple way to get a handle on financial news that you may have missed or not fully understood from the week before.\u00a0 For example, whether or not a scary unemployment number you heard about the last week affects mortgage rates or not is the kind of thing that you\u2019ll find explained in the analysis.<\/p>\n

Use the US Government Mortgage Shopping Tool<\/h3>\n

The CFPB, or Consumer Financial Protection Board, offers an online tool that shows what the typical lender is offering in your area for your credit score. Check the CFPB mortgage rate tool<\/a> out to get a ballpark of where your rate should be.<\/p>\n

Using Bankrate<\/h3>\n

No tool covers every single thing you need to know, and Bankrate is no exception.\u00a0 However, when used properly, Bankrate can be the best starting place for your mortgage research.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Check the Weekly Mortgage Rate<\/span><\/em> \u2013 There is a big blue box prominently displayed on the Mortgage page.\u00a0 That is the \u201cNational Overnight Averages\u201d.\u00a0 While useful, that survey is subject to more fluctuation.\u00a0 Find the Mortgage Rate Trend Index.\u00a0 <\/strong>It will be a regular link in the \u201cnews\u201d area.\u00a0 It comes out on Thursdays, so if you are on the site on Tuesday or Wednesday it might not be on the front page anymore.<\/li>\n
  2. Read the Analysis<\/span> \u2013 <\/em>Don\u2019t just look at the numbers, read the analysis.\u00a0 This will give you an idea of what to expect.\u00a0 Remember, this is last week\u2019s data, so the numbers you hear this week will be different.<\/li>\n
  3. Jot Down the Rates for Your Mortgage<\/span><\/em> \u2013 There will be a lot of numbers.\u00a0 You don\u2019t need them all.\u00a0 If you are looking for a 30-year fixed mortgage, the rate on the 15-year mortgage is irrelevant.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The Next Step<\/h3>\n

    The next step is to start shopping around.\u00a0 We\u2019ll discuss that in an upcoming post.\u00a0 Subscribe to the Finance Gourmet Feed<\/a> to make sure you don\u2019t miss anything.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Use this website to help start your research on mortgage interest rates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[293,361,419,581],"class_list":["post-191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-banking","tag-interest-rates","tag-mortgages","tag-refinance","tag-websites","no-featured-image-padding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financegourmet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financegourmet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financegourmet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financegourmet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financegourmet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/financegourmet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financegourmet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financegourmet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financegourmet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}