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Where's The Best Interest Rate Info?

Mortgages Are All About Timing; You Have To Keep Up

By Jennifer Openshaw of the Women's Financial Network
August 30, 2000, 4:12 p.m. EDT

Question: "We are buying a house and are floating right now, waiting for the interest rate to go below 8 percent. Is there a Web site that I can look at every day to see the local interest rates? Thank you."

--Melissa Millard, Minneapolis

Answer: Bank Rate Monitor at www.bankrate.com is one of my favorite sites for interest rates. There you can see current national and local rates on mortgages, bank savings accounts, car loans and more.

Right now, the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage stands at 7.65 percent. That's down from 7.70 percent last week. Rates on a jumbo mortgage are higher, so perhaps that's why you're still waiting. The national average is 8.07 percent, which is also down from last week's 8.12 percent.

Bankrate says that jumbo loans are considered "nonconforming" loans because they exceed the loan limit set by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which buy mortgage loans from lenders to ensure that mortgage money is available at all times in all locations around the country. The 1998 single-family loan limit for a "conforming" loan is $227,150. So a loan for an amount exceeding $227,150 would be a jumbo loan, which generally has a higher interest rate than "conforming" loans.

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