Home buyers who are looking for mortgages now should focus on fixed-rate loans because you won’t get much of an interest-rate break with an adjustable-rate loan. Bankrate.com recently put the average rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages at 6.42 percent while 15-year loans averaged 6.10 percent.
Current loan rates are higher than they’ve been in the past few years but are still historically low. Differences among lenders are greater now than a year ago because some lenders are more cautious than others. It’s a good time to shop for a loan.
If you already have adjustable-rate mortgages, you probably should hold onto it, rather than incur the expense of refinancing. There are caps on adjustable-rate loans so any further increases may not be very painful.
