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Mortgages & Financing
Mortgages & Financing guides on Easyabodefinder.
30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rates This Week: What's Driving Them
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 7.28% in Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey for the week ending October 1, 2026, up from 7.03% the previous week and 6.34% a year earlier (Freddie Mac, 2026-10-01). That is a 0.25 percentage-point move in seven days and a 0.94 percentage-point move in twelve months.
Odalys Reyes Fontaine · 8 min read
Mortgage Rates Today: This Month's Outlook and What's Driving Them
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 7.28% in the week ending October 1, 2026, up from 7.03% a week earlier and 6.34% a year ago (Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, 2026-10-01). That is a 0.25 percentage-point move in seven days and 0.94 points in twelve months, and it is the highest 30-year reading since November 22, 2023, when the average was 7.29% (Fox Business, 2026-10-01).
Desmond Achebe-Park · 8 min read
How to Qualify for a Mortgage When You're Self-Employed
If you own 25% or more of a business, lenders treat you as self-employed and underwrite your income from tax returns rather than pay stubs (Fannie Mae, 2023-12-13; Freddie Mac, undated; New American Funding, undated). That means your qualifying income is the net figure left after deductions, your documentation burden runs two years deep in most cases, and the number you think you earn may not be the number the lender uses.
Maren Vickery · 9 min read
ARM vs. Fixed-Rate Mortgage: Which Fits Your Situation
A fixed-rate mortgage locks your note rate for the full term. An adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) holds a start rate for a set period, then resets on a schedule using an index plus a fixed margin, inside caps written into your note. The structure you pick changes how much payment risk you carry after the fixed period — it does not change your program's credit score minimum, down payment minimum, or mortgage insurance rules, which come from whether you use a conventional or FHA loan.
Tobias Lindqvist · 10 min read
How Much Are Closing Costs: A State-by-State Breakdown
Closing costs are not one number. They are a stack of lender charges, third-party service fees, title and settlement costs and government recording charges, and the total swings from about $2,061 for buyers and sellers combined in Missouri to $29,888 in Washington, D.C. (Yahoo Finance, undated). Measured as a share of the purchase price, average closing costs run from 1.2% to 2.47% of a home's value depending on the state, according to an Assurance IQ study cited by the National Association of Realtors (2023-11-03).
Maren Vickery · 10 min read
Are You Ready to Buy? A 12-Point Checklist
Readiness for a mortgage is not a feeling. It is a set of numbers and documents an underwriter can verify: a credit score that clears the floor for the program you pick, a debt-to-income ratio inside that program's cap, a down payment that can be traced in a bank statement, and income you can prove on paper.
Tobias Lindqvist · 9 min read
Are You Ready to Refinance? A 10-Point Checklist
Refinancing is an underwriting decision, not a feeling about rates. Before you apply, you can check most of what a lender will check: your credit score against the floor for the program you want, your debt-to-income ratio against that program's cap, how long your current loan has been open, your payment history for the last 12 months, and whether the new loan clears the benefit or recoupment test your program applies.
Desmond Achebe-Park · 9 min read
Refinancing Step-by-Step: What It Costs and How Long It Takes
A refinance is a new mortgage on a home you already own: you apply, a lender underwrites you again, a settlement agent pays off the old loan, and you start making payments on the new one. The work is mostly paperwork, and the cost is mostly a stack of separate fees — some set by the lender, some by the title company, some by your county or state.
Odalys Reyes Fontaine · 10 min read
Self-Employed Mortgage Options Explained: Rates, Requirements, and Costs
If you work for yourself, the loan itself is the same product a salaried borrower gets — the difference is how the lender proves your income, and how much cash and credit the program asks for in return. Four routes are compared here: conventional (including 3%-down programs), FHA, VA, and non-QM bank statement loans.
Desmond Achebe-Park · 9 min read
Is Now a Good Time to Refinance? How to Tell
Refinance pricing in early October 2026 is higher than it has been in over a year. The 30-year fixed averaged 7.28% in the week of October 1, 2026, up 0.25 percentage points from the week before and 0.94 points above the same week a year earlier (Freddie Mac PMMS, 2026-10-01). That changes the arithmetic for most people holding a loan taken out before this run-up.
Maren Vickery · 7 min read
FHA vs. Conventional Loans: Which Fits Your Situation
FHA and conventional loans are both widely available for a primary-residence purchase, but they qualify different borrowers. FHA reaches lower credit scores — as low as 500 with 10% down, or 580 with 3.5% down (National Association of REALTORS®, 2024-12-20) — while conventional loans start at a 620 score and a 3% down payment (Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation, undated). The bigger long-run difference is mortgage insurance: FHA charges 1.75% upfront plus an annual premium, and conventional PMI has no upfront charge and cancels at 20% equity.
Priya Natarajan-Wells · 8 min read
Down Payment Guide for First-Time Buyers: How Much You Really Need
The down payment you need is a percentage of the purchase price, so the dollar amount depends entirely on what homes cost in your metro. The program floors are fixed: 3.5% on most FHA loans for borrowers with a credit score of 580 or higher (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, undated; Experian, April 2025), 3% on Fannie Mae's HomeReady (The Mortgage Reports, July 2026), and no down payment at all on VA loans with full entitlement (Lower.com, May 2026) or USDA loans in eligible rural areas (NerdWallet, September 2026).
Priya Natarajan-Wells · 9 min read