Nobody is quoted the average. What you are offered depends on your credit, your down payment, and what you pay up front, and the gap between the best and worst quote on the same file is worth more than most people negotiate off the price.
Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, week ending 08/20/26. Read 08/25/26. Current survey
Credit score. The single largest input. The spread between a 760 file and a 640 file is routinely more than a full percentage point, which on a 30-year loan is tens of thousands of dollars.
Points. One point costs 1% of the loan and buys roughly a quarter-point off the rate. Worth it only if you keep the loan past the breakeven, which is usually five to seven years. An advertised rate almost always assumes points are paid.
Down payment.Under 20% adds mortgage insurance, which is a real monthly cost on top of the rate. The playbook’s house step prices this for conventional, FHA and VA loans, and they differ more than most comparisons admit.
Shopping around. Multiple mortgage inquiries inside a 45-day window count as one for scoring purposes, so comparing several lenders costs you nothing. Compare the Loan Estimate, not the quoted rate: it is a standard three-page form, identical across lenders by law, and page two is where the fees are.
The CFPB publishes a line-by-line guide to the Loan Estimate. It is free and sells nothing.
Listed in no particular order and with no rates, deliberately. A mortgage rate is quoted against your file, not published, so any number here would be an advertisement rather than a fact. Get three quotes on the same day, since they move daily.
A pre-approval is a lender saying, after checking your income, assets and credit, how much they will actually lend you. It is what makes an offer credible, and in a competitive market an offer without one is often not read.
It is a hard credit inquiry, and it expires, usually in 60 to 90 days. Both are reasons not to do it early. If you are still saving a down payment, there is nothing to gain from pulling one now and it will have lapsed by the time you offer.
Pre-qualified is not pre-approved. A pre-qualification is a soft check against numbers you typed in yourself. Sellers know the difference.
The amount they approve is not a budget.Lenders underwrite to about 36% of gross income across all debt. The playbook’s house step prices the payment against what you actually spend, which is usually a smaller number, and that is the one to buy at.
CFPB Owning a Home walks the process end to end, with a rate-comparison tool built on real lender data.
HUD-approved housing counseling is free advice from a federally approved agency, and the route to first-time-buyer and down-payment-assistance programs that no calculator models.
Work out the payment at any price with the mortgage calculator, or check whether buying beats renting at all with rent vs. buy.