{"id":105,"date":"2026-10-19T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.seanvaldez.com\/blog\/?p=105"},"modified":"2026-10-19T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T09:00:00","slug":"homebuyers-can-shape-their-mortgage-rate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.seanvaldez.com\/blog\/2026\/10\/19\/homebuyers-can-shape-their-mortgage-rate\/","title":{"rendered":"Homebuyers Can Shape Their Mortgage Rate"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"video-zmyer\">\n<div class=\"video-frame-zmyer\">\n        <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/www.roomvu.com\/agent\/embed\/sean-valdez\/homebuyers-control-mortgage-remotion-videos-4fa1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><br \/>\n        <\/iframe>\n    <\/div>\n<div class=\"video-description-zmyer\">\n<p>One of the most empowering aspects of securing a home loan is that your choices truly can influence your mortgage rate. Recent analysis of 1.35 million US purchase loans (Early-Q1 2023 through Late-Q4 2025) found that even within the same month, borrowers saw a wide range in rates\u2014about a 93-basis-point spread, which translates to roughly $28,400 in home price on a $2,000 monthly budget.<\/p>\n<p>The biggest factor? Credit scores. Moving your score from the high 600s up to 720 can make a significant difference, with key breakpoints at 700 and 720. Shopping around is another powerful lever: among retail lenders, a very competitive lender beat the typical one by 19 basis points\u2014about $5,800 in value.<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, reaching 20% down payment made only a slight difference in the rate itself (just 0.7 basis points), but it does help avoid mortgage insurance, which can mean bigger savings overall. Working closely with a mortgage professional who knows how to navigate these details can make all the difference in finding the right financing for your goals.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the most empowering aspects of securing a home loan is that your choices truly can influence your mortgage rate. Recent analysis of 1.35 million US purchase loans (Early-Q1 2023 through Late-Q4 2025) found that even within the same month, borrowers saw a wide range in rates\u2014about a 93-basis-point spread, which translates to roughly [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":363,"featured_media":106,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seanvaldez.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seanvaldez.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seanvaldez.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seanvaldez.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/363"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seanvaldez.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.seanvaldez.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107,"href":"https:\/\/www.seanvaldez.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105\/revisions\/107"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seanvaldez.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seanvaldez.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seanvaldez.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seanvaldez.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}