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I find it somewhat interesting that a US 30 year fixed mortgage is 5,49%, while a 10 year fixed mortgage in Sweden currently is at 3,6%[1]. Big difference! [1] https://www.compricer.se/borantor/
Nice work. Navy Federal has always had competitive rates: https://www.navyfederal.org/loans-cards/mortgage/mortgage-ra... Membership requires a military connection in the family, but it can go back to grandparents: https://www.navyfederal.org/membership/eligibility.html
Having worked in mortgage, two important points: 1. Credit unions and large banks do not have access to the same vault of loan products at the same rates as each other. Fannie and Freddie offer rate discounts at volume. 2. Credit unions typically do not run mortgage programs for profit, unlike big banks. This also contributes to their ability to eat your cost. Tit-for-tat, if you reduce it all down, the Chase's and W…
There's also specialization and process optimization that big banks do that little CUs simply don't have the volume to justify. If someone buried deep within BofA or Chase or some other national entity looks at your stuff and says some factor that's marginal makes it a no-go for some product that's the end of it despite being offset by some other factor that's out of the ordinary in a good direction. At a credit unio…
You and OP agree.
Broadly speaking, if you have good credit (or are wealthy) you’ll get a better rate at a bank or mortgage specialist. If you don’t, you’re more likely to get approved at a credit union.
Nice Work! I found our credit union posts the mortgage rates clearly on a plain text like page. There's no BS and no games. Whereas with the big banks, you get the games and higher rates .. no matter if they have records of 10 years of your salary deposits. When I tried to suggest credit unions to friends, I got looks. Like, people just assume what everyone else does (get conned by big banks) is good.
I too have noticed an inexplicable apprehension about credit unions, even large ones such as Wings. They are almost uniformly better for individuals than big banks, yet people imagine a scenario where they'll need to withdraw cash in the middle of the Mojave so they need WF. Spoiler: 1) you won't and 2) you still can.
The American financial landscape is too diverse to accommodate such sweeping statements. To many depositors default to the big banks. But that doesn’t mean everyone—or even most—who are under optimizing their deposits is better served by a credit union.
> people imagine a scenario where they'll need to withdraw cash in the middle of the Mojave so they need WF
If ATM access is your bugaboo, an online bank that reimburses everyonea’ ATM fees is the way to go.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's also specialization and process optimization that big banks do that little CUs simply don't have the volume to justify. If someone buried deep within BofA or Chase or some other national entity looks at your stuff and says some factor that's marginal makes it a no-go for some product that's the end of it despite being offset by some other factor that's out of the ordinary in a good direction. At a credit unio…
> At a credit union with the process broken down across fewer people the person making that decision is more likely to be able to see that the big picture math still works for a given product You and OP agree. Broadly speaking, if you have good credit (or are wealthy) you’ll get a better rate at a bank or mortgage specialist. If you don’t, you’re more likely to get approved at a credit union.
Or you're buying well below your means but don't wanna get screwed into a different product because what you're buying is on the ragged edge of what can be bought with the lower cost mortgage product you want.
Some jerk at corporate for the big bank will punt because some rule he's supposed to follow says he ought to do that and it's not like he stands to benefit by not. The CU will probably squint and work with you.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are downsides. I have a really great rate on my mortgage, but our house is super expensive and small for our family… but now we can’t afford to move. If we moved to a new house, we would have to pay off this great mortgage and get a new one, at a much higher interest rate. Even if we found a house that cost the exact same as ours, the monthly payment would be 50% higher, because current interest rates are more…
This is why the US housing market is deadlocked (live locked?). Sellers arent willing to lower prices AND lose a low rate and buyers aren't willing to pay those prices and expect a buyer's market. Nothing is moving and realtors are hurting. Something has to pop the bubble, will it be massive job loss that forces relocation or sale for cash and move to apartment? Who knows?
"Won't somebody think of the realtors?" isn't one I've heard before.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> At a credit union with the process broken down across fewer people the person making that decision is more likely to be able to see that the big picture math still works for a given product You and OP agree. Broadly speaking, if you have good credit (or are wealthy) you’ll get a better rate at a bank or mortgage specialist. If you don’t, you’re more likely to get approved at a credit union.
> If you don’t, you’re more likely to get approved at a credit union. Or you're buying well below your means but don't wanna get screwed into a different product because what you're buying is on the ragged edge of what can be bought with the lower cost mortgage product you want. Some jerk at corporate for the big bank will punt because some rule he's supposed to follow says he ought to do that and it's not like he st…
This customer is looking for a lender who can and will eat costs for the relationship. That’s probably a mortgage specialist with a wealth management arm. The ones who require 25 to 35% down, but undercut the rates e.g. a credit union can charge.
> because what you're buying is on the ragged edge of what can be bought with the lower cost mortgage product you want
If you’re buying within your means, you shouldn’t be on the ragged edge of anything. You should be getting a cheap, plain mortgage from a lender competing for your business. Ideally conforming, and where the originator eats origination and closing costs.
Good idea. A few years back I built https://originationdata.com that compares mortgage lenders (both FDIC & FCUA members) using HMDA data. I modeled rates by lender, product type as well as by facets like MSA (as well as STL FRED data, too). It grew for a few years and I was ecstatic-- getting backlinks organically from some impressive sites (e.g. larger banks themselves, consumer publications) as well as positive us…
Hey I really like the aesthetics. > Then Google pushed their "Helpful Content Update" and... May I just say, no matter what you work on, a separate piece of work will be getting people to know about it. So fine, people can no longer find you on google. But if your website is truly useful, people will keep talking about it and linking to it, no? Anyway, what are you working on now?
Consumers, for a product such as mortgage, will be fragmented and infrequent users, who will only be in-market for a mortgage for a ~3-6 month window every X years. For this audience, discoverability is what matters-- and they will simply go to a search engine and look for "cincinnati mortgages" for which Google will gladly show 8-12 ads with CPCs of $20. An objective ranking based on rates and fees is useful for the consumer, but not an ad network who would rather drive multiple clicks on paid ads. Being objective and useful isn't enough to play in the space, unfortunately.
Everyone should switch to a local credit union. The rates are better, they're entirely local, and they're usually not trying to actively screw you.
> Estimated monthly payment based on purchasing $400,000 home with 20% down, $567/mo taxes and insurance, and 1.65% closing costs. Does anyone know the source of these numbers? Example: The are national median values. Except maybe Texas, where else can you buy a house/apt in the US near a major job center for only 400k?