The Truth About Mortgage Blog
Welcome to a warm, friendly, and most importantly unbiased place to learn about mortgages, ideally before you make contact with a real estate agent or lender. The more you know, the better you’ll feel, and hopefully all that hard work will help you snag a lower mortgage rate too! View all mortgage help topics to get started or check out the latest mortgage tips and news below.
Latest Posts
Is a 2.25% 30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rate in the Cards?
One of the problems with refinancing a home loan right now is that mortgage rates keep falling. As such, you might find the need to refinance again shortly after refinancing. Aside from being inconvenient, it’s also not very cost-effective. Yes, ... Read More »
Homeowners in Forbearance Plans Have Lower Credit Scores, Higher DTI Ratios
The latest weekly Forbearance and Call Volume Survey from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) revealed that 7.80% of outstanding home loans were in forbearance. That number was up slightly from 7.74% a week earlier, putting roughly 3.9 million homeowners in ... Read More »
What Is a Gift of Equity?
One of the biggest hurdles to homeownership is down payment. Most people can afford a monthly mortgage payment, especially with interest rates so low, because it’s often not too different than a rent payment. But coming up with 20% of ... Read More »
Is Mortgage a Good Debt or a Bad Debt?
You may have heard that mortgage is a “good debt,” in that it’s okay to carry a multi-hundred-thousand-dollar loan for decades on end. While that may sound counterintuitive to the many anti-debt folks out there, such as Suze Orman or ... Read More »
Knock Home Swap: Buy, Sell, a Get a Mortgage with Just One Company
One of the trickiest aspects of homeownership is unloading an existing property while acquiring a replacement. Aside from being stressful, it can also be difficult it not impossible thanks to financing constraints and unwanted contingencies, which a home seller likely ... Read More »
15-Year Fixed Mortgage Rates Just Hit Record Lows: Should You Consider One?
While 30-year fixed mortgage rates tend to steal all the headlines, 15-year fixed mortgage rates quietly reached record lows this week as well, per Freddie Mac’s weekly survey. This morning, Freddie announced that the 30-year fixed fell to a new ... Read More »
A Look Inside the Books of Rocket Companies, Inc.
Thanks to a newly released SEC Form S-1 associated with their upcoming initial public offering (IPO), we now know a lot more about closely held Quicken Loans, aka Rocket Mortgage, aka “Rocket Companies, Inc.” The company, which bills itself as ... Read More »
Now Home Prices Are Expected to Fall By 2021 Thanks to COVID-19
While the housing market has been coming up roses lately, even in the face of COVID-19, it might turn out to be a short-lived affair as widespread unemployment takes hold. A new report from CoreLogic today revealed that despite a ... Read More »
The Top 25 Mortgage Lenders of 2019
If you’re curious which mortgage lender closed the most home loans in 2019, I’ve got your answer. You probably already guessed it was Detroit, Michigan-based Quicken Loans, which also led on total dollar amount in recent quarters. But if you ... Read More »
Are Mortgage Points Worth the Cost?
Mortgage Q&A: “Are mortgage points worth it?” When taking out a mortgage, whether for a new home purchase or to refinance an existing loan, one decision you’ll undoubtedly have to make is if it’s worth paying mortgage points to obtain ... Read More »
