May 02, 2019
One of Our Service-Areas Offers Top-Ten Lowest Mortgage Rates
Our clients are sometimes startled to discover how different housing markets can be from state to state and from zip code to zip code—not just in terms of the types of housing available or the prices of homes at market, but in terms of mortgage rates available to potential buyers and the ease with which a buyer might be approved for a loan. This holds true independent of credit score and level of income.
To demonstrate this, let’s look at results from a recent report produced by Lending Tree.
First of all, there’s the matter of average home price. Nationwide, we find the average loan amount is $224,297 overall. But there’s a great deal of difference on the state level. While California’s average loan amount is more than $313,000, Oklahoma’s average loan amount rises only to $186,502.
Then there’s the APRs offered by lenders. The nationwide average at the time the report was released (February 8th) was 4.95 percent. While California’s loan amounts are the highest on average, their APR was the lowest on offer: 4.83 percent on that date. But there isn’t direct correlation between price and APR: New York had the highest APR, at 5.07 percent.
Indeed, the ten states with the lowest average mortgage rates were, in order, California, New Jersey, Washington, Massachusetts (one of the areas that we serve here at Topouzis & Associates, P.C., where the average offered interest rate was 4.76 percent and the APR was 4.86 percent), Utah, Colorado, Maryland, Kentucky, Virginia, and South Dakota. While, yes, some of these markets (including Massachusetts) have among the nation’s highest housing prices, some (like Kentucky and South Dakota) are not particularly notable for their high average home cost.
Of our three service area-states, Massachusetts had the advantage by a significant margin of lowest interest rate on offer at 4.76 percent and lowest average APR of 4.86 percent, coming in as it did at the 4th lowest of the 50 states. Rhode Island (which came in 21st with an average offered interest rate of 4.83 percent and an average APR of 4.94 percent) and Florida (at 24th with an average offered interest rate of 4.84 percent and an average APR of 4.94) differed from one another very little on this rubric.
However, the average offered loan amounts between the states were significant. Massachusetts’s was $274,996; Rhode Island’s was $242,492; and Florida’s came in at $218,638.
Whatever the average rates you manage to secure, the title insurance policies we connect you with here at Topouzis & Associates, P.C., provide peace of mind that new property purchases will not bring along any nasty surprises. Whether you intend to buy in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Providence, Rhode Island; or Boca Raton, Florida, feel free to contact us for more information.
