In this article, you'll learn in under 10 minutes:

Every lender advertises a nominal interest rate. It's the big number on the page, and it's the least useful figure in the offer.

What you compare is the APR, which folds interest together with the cost of the loan — origination, insurance, points.

An offer with a lower rate and a higher APR is the more expensive offer, and that inversion shows up constantly between conventional and government-backed loans. For the national benchmark, Freddie Mac publishes its Primary Mortgage Market Survey every Thursday.

What moves your rate away from that average:

Two people buying the same house on the same day can get offers a full percentage point apart. That's the market pricing risk.

The required mortgage down payment minimum and what buyers actually put down are two different numbers:

In practice, first-time buyers tend to put down around 10%, and repeat buyers closer to a quarter of the price, because they roll the proceeds of a previous sale into the purchase.

The 20% mark is what changes the math, and not because approval depends on it. Below that line, a conventional loan carries mortgage insurance.

When your mortgage down payment lands below 20% on a conventional loan, the lender requires PMI, private mortgage insurance.

Be precise about what that is: insurance protecting the lender if you stop paying. You pay the premium, they collect the benefit. It runs 0.3% to 1.5% of the loan amount per year — on a $400,000 loan, $1,200 to $6,000 annually, with your credit score deciding where you land.

The good news is that PMI ends, and the exit rules are fixed in federal law:

That second line is money on the table. The thresholds sit months apart, and asking at the right moment saves every premium in between.

FHA works differently, and harder. Its insurance is called MIP, carries an upfront premium of 1.75% rolled into the financing, and the monthly premium stays for the life of the loan when you put down less than 10%.

Paying the balance down doesn't cancel it — getting out normally means refinancing into a conventional loan.

On top of the down payment, closing runs 2% to 5% of the loan amount — cash you need beyond what you set aside to put down. On a $400,000 loan, that's $8,000 to $20,000.

Every charge appears itemized on the Loan Estimate, which your lender must deliver within three business days of your application.

Lender charges — where negotiating works:

Third-party and government charges — little to no flexibility:

Government-backed loans add an upfront premium: FHA 1.75%, VA 1.4% to 3.6%, USDA 1%.

That split is what matters at the table. Lender fees come down when there's a competing offer in the room. The rest don't — there, your job is checking they haven't been padded.

Between 3% and 20% down, with PMI below 20%. Subject to the national loan limit below.

3.5% down and more forgiving credit. The cost is the MIP that rarely goes away — worth it when conventional approval is out of reach, much less so when it isn't.

Nothing down for eligible service members, veterans and surviving spouses, with no monthly mortgage insurance — only the upfront funding fee. If you qualify, nothing else comes close.

Nothing down in eligible rural areas, subject to income limits. The eligibility map covers far more ground than the name suggests.

For loan amounts above the conforming limit. Expect a high credit score, a larger down payment and documented reserves.

Fixed for an introductory period, adjustable afterward. It fits buyers with a firm date to sell or refinance. For everyone else, it's risk wearing the costume of a low payment.

The FHFA resets the maximum conforming loan size every year. Two rules always hold: a national baseline covers most counties, and in high-cost areas the ceiling rises to 150% of that baseline.

Cross the line and the loan becomes jumbo — a different category, not just a bigger number. Credit requirements and minimum down payment rise, and the lender starts asking for documented reserves.

The practical takeaway is worth real money: if the amount you need sits just above your county's limit, raising your mortgage down payment by a few thousand dollars can pull the loan back into conforming territory and reprice the entire mortgage.

Because it resets annually, check the current limit for your county on the FHFA site — the baseline doesn't apply everywhere.

The process typically takes 30 to 45 days.

No single lender is always best. Big banks, digital lenders, credit unions and FHA and VA specialists each win in different situations — and the only way to find yours is three Loan Estimates on the same table, on the same day.

Nearly everything here comes down to one discipline: treating a mortgage as a purchase, not a favor the bank is doing you.

Buyers who show up with clean credit, a defined mortgage down payment and three Loan Estimates in hand pay less than buyers who take the first offer — and across thirty years, that gap runs into tens of thousands of dollars.

The three highest-return moves are simple and don't depend on the market: fix your credit before you apply, because every score tier carries a price; get to 20% down if you're close, because killing mortgage insurance usually beats any rate negotiation; and request PMI cancellation the moment your balance hits 80% instead of waiting — that request is yours to make, and the lender won't make it for you.

The rest is comparison. Rates will rise and fall, limits will reset, programs will be renamed — but the ruler stays the same: compare the APR, on the same day, across three lenders.