Mortgage Rates in Alabama

Also known as a mortgage loan, a mortgage is an agreement between you and a lender that allows you to borrow money to purchase a home. This agreement also gives your lender the right to take said home if you don’t repay the money you borrowed, plus interest. Most importantly, a mortgage allows you to obtain a home without having to pay the total purchase price upfront.

Loan type Different borrowers have different needs, and there is no one-size-fits-all loan product. A variety of loan types exist to help serve these needs, each with unique requirements and rate structures. Expect to see different mortgage rates based on the loan type you pick.

Loan term The amount of time you have to repay the entirety of your loan. The most common terms are 30-year mortgages, followed by 20-year and 15-year mortgages. Shorter loan terms tend to have lower mortgage rates and overall costs, but also carry higher monthly payments.

The loan amount The total amount of money you’ve borrowed and must repay (with interest) over the course of your loan term. Some loan types, like conventional loans, have limits on the loan amount. A larger loan amount doesn’t necessarily mean correspondingly higher mortgage rates.

Down payment A sum of money towards the home’s total purchase price that you pay upfront without any lender funds. The larger your down payment, the smaller the size of your loan – and in many cases, the lower your mortgage rate.

Loan-to-Value ratio (LTV) Your loan-to-value ratio (LTV) is a calculation reflecting the difference between the appraised value of your home and how much you’re borrowing from your lender to purchase the home. Putting down less of your own money on a home increases your LTV, which can make you seem riskier to lenders and result in a higher mortgage rate.

Credit score This three-digit score predicts how likely you are to pay back a loan on-time. Since a mortgage may be the largest loan you’ll ever undertake, lenders look at your credit score closely. Buyers with higher credit scores tend to get lower mortgage rates than those with low scores.

Debt-to-income ratio Your debt-to-income ratio (DTI) is a percentage that tells lenders how much of your gross monthly income goes toward your monthly obligations (debt). The lower your DTI, the more a lender looks favorably on you. A DTI of 43% or less is ideal when you’re on the hunt for a mortgage.

Home location Many lenders will offer slightly different mortgage rates depending on what part of the country you live in. This can vary by state and county, with loan limits specific to certain regions.

Occupancy This is not how many people will be sharing those two bedrooms! Lenders are interested in whether this home is intended to be your primary residence, a second vacation home, or an investment home. Rates tend to be lowest on primary residences, because lenders believe you’ll be incentivized to pay your mortgage on time for the place you actually live in.

Mortgage insurance If you choose to make a down payment of less than 20% of the purchase price of your new home, you will need to pay for Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI). You must also pay mortgage insurance on FHA and USDA loans. This monthly fee may cancel when you’ve paid off a given percentage of your loan.

Shopping around for a mortgage is crucial Homes are significant purchases, and even small variations in your mortgage terms can make a significant difference in how much you pay over the life of your loan. Shopping around allows you to take advantage of those differences and make an informed decision.

You might get a special offer Certain timely offers may only be available through a specific lender, allowing you to make the most of a unique situation and wind up with a lower rate.

Variability between lenders on rates and terms Not all lenders are able to offer the same rates and terms. Even a lender you prefer and have experience with may not have the lowest rates in a given situation. Comparing rates allows you to quickly identify and weigh the differences – the results could surprise you!

You have to decide what best fits your situation It bears repeating: one buyer’s ideal loan terms may not be the right match for another. Seeing rates from as many lenders as possible can help you be sure that you’ve found the mortgage that’s right for you.

Fixed-Rate Mortgage True to their name, these mortgages carry a fixed interest rate for the entire loan term. With loan terms generally ranging between 15 and 30 years, fixed-rate mortgages may appeal to borrowers who like to know their mortgage payments from month to month.

Conventional These loans are privately-backed and are either conforming (they fit the requirements to be sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) or nonconforming (they don’t meet those requirements). The servicing limit (or conforming limit) for a conventional loan in most counties is $647,200, and the minimum credit score is 620.

Jumbo For non-conforming conventional loans that exceed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s loan servicing limit, you’ll have to finance via a jumbo mortgage. The limit is $647,200 in most counties. Compared to conforming loans, jumbo mortgages require higher down payments, higher closing costs, and potentially higher interest rates. Since these more expensive loans are seen as riskier to lenders, the qualifications for a jumbo loan also tend to be steeper.

Government-backed These loans are guaranteed by the US government, often through individual departments like the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) or Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). While requirements are often more stringent than privately-backed loans, government-backed loans also tend to require lower down payments for borrowers.

Adjustable-rate mortgages With adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs), the interest rate varies throughout the life of the loan. Typically, the initial mortgage rate remains fixed for a period of time (often at a lower rate than conventional 30-year fixed-rate loans), but then adjusts based on market factors in the years after that period. Depending on the state of the market, this can potentially mean your rates adjusting upward, causing you to pay more in interest each month and in some cases more in total over the life of your mortgage than a comparable 30-year fixed rate loan.

While your interest rate is how much you’ll pay each year to borrow money towards your home, your annual percentage rate (APR) includes not just the cost of your interest rate, but also any points, mortgage broker fees, and some additional closing costs.

While both are expressed as a percentage, APR gives you a more comprehensive overview of how much you’ll owe both upfront and over the life of the loan.

Generally, you can lock in your mortgage from when you finalize your loan application to up to 5 days before closing.

When rates seem to be trending up, you may want to lock in earlier in the hopes you’ll secure a lower rate. But longer rate locks are more expensive, and no one can guarantee how rates might move between now and when you close, so knowing the risks and your timeline is key.

When you get a mortgage pre-approval, your lender confirms your ability to pay for a loan without actually extending a mortgage loan. Expect to undergo a credit check, submit income information, provide a history of past residences, and more.

With pre-approval, you can better understand how much house you qualify for and the types of mortgages available. You can start the pre-approval process right here with Morty.

The mortgage rate landscape is ever-changing: rates can update multiple times per day. A variety of factors affect today’s mortgage rates, some of which are outside of your control (like the overall economic outlook) and some that are within your control (like your credit score and type of loan). Influenced heavily by the current state of the market, you wind up with a collection of daily rates that are always subject to change.

A rate lock protects borrowers from some of the up-and-down nature of interest rates in the market.

With a rate lock, a lender agrees to offer the borrower an exact interest rate for a set window of time. If the market interest rates go up, the rate you’re being offered for your mortgage will remain steady, at least for the time frame specified by your lender. While lock periods typically range between 30-60 days, Morty also offers 75-, 90-, and 180-day locks.

Mortgage discount points are fees paid by you toward the lender, increasing closing costs in order to reduce the interest rate on the loan. Each “point” you buy costs 1% of the total mortgage amount and typically lowers the mortgage rate by .25%, resulting in a lower monthly bill over the life of the loan and lower interest paid.

The opposite of discount points, lender credits are when you take on a higher interest rate for additional money from the lender that will help offset your closing costs. They’re calculated the same way as discount points, but appear as a “negative” point on your loan, since you’re getting money from the lender rather than paying more to them. While credits help you pay less in closing costs upfront, accepting them will also increase your monthly mortgage payment.

The lowest 30-year mortgage rate for you may vary on a day-to-day basis, based on a number of market factors and benchmarks, including activity from the Federal Reserve, the bond market, inflation, and the overall health of the economy. Lenders can update their rates every day. Just because one lender has the lowest rate for you on a given day doesn’t guarantee that they’ll also have the lowest rate for you the next day.

A quick, simple way to check today’s lowest 30-year mortgage rates is via this rates tool, which is updated daily.

The short, unsatisfying answer: it depends. Current forecasts don’t suggest rates are likely to fall significantly in the near future. That said, high levels of volatility within the market mean that rates could indeed drop week-to-week, even over the course of a several month span during which rates rise overall. Checking regularly is the best way to stay up-to-date.

While a local lender may offer a longstanding history of operation, online mortgage providers bring their own suite of advantages to the table. Compared to local lenders, online providers have access to a much wider network of potential lenders, allowing you to compare more options and further ensure you’ve found the right loan for you. Online lenders also offer streamlined web-based platforms, which simplify the mortgage process by allowing you to track every step of your loan in one place. This same platform advantage can even save you time by making it quicker and easier to get pre-approved and apply for a loan.