New Rule: The Better Your Credit Score the Higher Your Mortgage Rate

30-year mortgage rates courtesy of Mortgage News Daily

Subsidizing High-Risk Homebuyers

Please note that not only will banks offer Subsidies to High-Risk Homebuyers, it will be at the expense of those with better credit scores. 

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will enact changes to fees known as loan-level price adjustments (LLPAs) on May 1 that will affect mortgages originating at private banks nationwide, from Wells Fargo to JPMorgan Chase, effectively tweaking interest rates paid by the vast majority of homebuyers.

The result, according to industry pros: pricier monthly mortgage payments for most homebuyers — an ugly surprise for those who worked for years to build their credit, only to face higher costs than they expected as part of a housing affordability push by the US Federal Housing Finance Agency.

“It’s unprecedented,” added David Stevens, who served as Federal Housing Administration commissioner during the Obama administration. “My email is full from mortgage companies and CEOs [telling] me how unbelievably shocked they are by this move.” 

Under the new rules, high-credit buyers with scores ranging from 680 to above 780 will see a spike in their mortgage costs – with applicants who place 15% to 20% down payment experiencing the biggest increase in fees.

Under the revised LLPA pricing structure, a home buyer with a 740 FICO credit score and a 15% to 20% down payment will face a 1% surcharge – an increase of 0.750% compared to the old fee of just 0.250%.

When absorbed into a long-term mortgage rate, the increase is the equivalent of slightly less than a quarter percentage point in mortgage rate. On a $400,000 loan with a 6% mortgage rate, that buyer could expect their monthly payment to rise by about $40, according to calculations by Stevens.

Meanwhile, buyers with credit scores of 679 or lower will have their fees slashed, resulting in more favorable mortgage rates. For example, a buyer with a 620 FICO credit score with a down payment of 5% or less gets a 1.75% fee discount – a decrease from the old fee rate of 3.50% for that bracket.

Reverse Pricing

This reverse pricing of mortgage rates is so insane that I am at a loss for additional words.

Median Home Prices Sink 3% in March, the Biggest Yearly Drop Since 2012

On a housing-related note, Median Home Prices Sink 3% in March, the Biggest Yearly Drop Since 2012

Home Prices Are Falling Everywhere, But Not as Fast as They Rose

On April 1, I commented Home Prices Are Falling Everywhere, But Not as Fast as They Rose

Median Price vs Repeat Sales

  • Median price is timely but highly inaccurate.
  • Measures or repeat sales of the same home as per Case-Shiller methodology are accurate but severely lagging on the way up and down.

See the above articles for discussion.

Meanwhile, please note the best rate for those with high credit scores will jump from 6.75 percent to 7.0 percent. 

This post originated on MishTalk.Com.

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78 Comments
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Lisa_Hooker
Lisa_Hooker
2 years ago
I am speechless, dumbfounded, not even a wisecrack.
Bam_Man
Bam_Man
2 years ago
“Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue.”
astroboy
astroboy
2 years ago
Reply to  Bam_Man
Actually, perhaps this is a good week to start sniffing glue.
Greatest movie of all time. Lloyd Bridges deserved an Oscar.
Jwk
Jwk
2 years ago

Silly me, I thought congress debated and passed legislation.

babelthuap
babelthuap
2 years ago
For decades I recall finance articles stating it’s dumb to pay off your home early. I understood what they were saying but as a kid in the early 80’s in the suburbs I’d see homeowners put signs in their yards with balloons, “It’s Paid For”. I’d ride by on my bike thinking wow! They own their house. No more bills. To me that sign represented a form of freedom I wanted one day so that’s what I did. I paid off my home as fast as I could. Think I ended up chopping off 100K in interests.
I know I could have made more than that 100K investing those extra payments but something about freedom. I guess I’m just a suck for it or, maybe I am not with this new development?
Zardoz
Zardoz
2 years ago
Reply to  babelthuap

…. And you could have lost on those investments

KidHorn
KidHorn
2 years ago
I would like to see a college professor change the grading rules for his class. Instead of everyone getting the grades they earned due to their test answers and submitted work, give everyone in the class the same grade. Whatever the average is, everyone gets that grade. The equitable way. After everyone fails and has to repeat the class, I think they would have a different view of equity.
BobbyJ
BobbyJ
2 years ago
Reply to  KidHorn
It’s worse than grade equity. In order to ensure that the kids with bad grades, get good grades, they have to take the A’s and B’s away from the good students and give them to the bad students. Devil’s at work….
Zardoz
Zardoz
2 years ago
Reply to  KidHorn
The grade should be “L”
Jack
Jack
2 years ago
Makes sense the government rewards low credit worthy individuals – the government is worse offender as when has the government ever paid their bills fully at the end of the month?
JMOD46
JMOD46
2 years ago
Looks like I’ll need to take up smoking (increase my health risk) to get a better life insurance rate if this kind of absurdity continues…
amigator
amigator
2 years ago
Unbelievable. So you live your life respecting others meeting your obligations, following the rules and now you pay extra for that
GruesomeHarvest
GruesomeHarvest
2 years ago
The function of government in the modern state is to act as the agent for the irresponsible. And of course the most irresponsible hold seats of power in the government. They rise to such auspicious levels by being irresponsible with facts. Grifter Biden and cackling Kamala are perfect examples.
StukiMoi
StukiMoi
2 years ago
More specifically, the function of government is to transfer wealth. From those who earn it. To the leeching net-negatives.
Which this achieves splendidly: Deadbeats get to pay less; while the leeches “investing” in and “owning” mortgages, get another pool of suckers to live large off of. Instead of having to get a real job. With the whole racket funded by those who are still naive enough to bother trying to be some sort of useful life form.
This is now ALL that government does. Literally. Nothing else. Not.one.single.other.thing.whatsoever: Just stealing from the ever dwindling number of still productives. In order to enrich complete deadweights 100% dependent on nothing but ever increasing amounts of government theft.
And still, armies of naive dunces, even among those on the being-robbed side of the ledger, remain so indoctrinated that they continue clinging to the completely nonsensical fantasy that government exists for any, whatsoever, other reason than to rob them for the benefit of 100% useless leeches. And hence, to the equally trivially idiotic notion that there is even one single facet of the current so called “system,” which America would not benefit immensely from being blown up and dismantled, in it’s entirety, as of tonight. To be replaced by either anything else whatsoever, or better yet nothing at all.
Mjs357
Mjs357
2 years ago
“Spread your wealth”. Everybody gets a trophy…I mean house. PPL think because Barry from Hawaii doesn’t physically occupy the WH that policies like wealth re-distribution are gone too.
Doug78
Doug78
2 years ago
Looking into it it seems to me to be principally a measure to increase the profitability of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac under the guise of helping the poor and downtrodden. Since way more loans go to people who do have good credit than to those who don’t, raising the price that good credit barrowers have to pay goes directly into Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s pockets. Justifying the new rule as a measure to help those with bad credit scores is a great way to stifle objections and gain brownie points from a certain political party. At the end of the article the real reason comes out directly when the FHFA Director Sandra Thompson said:
“These changes to upfront fees will strengthen the safety and soundness of the Enterprises by enhancing their ability to improve their capital position over time.”
Can’t get clearer than that.
Nuddernoitall
Nuddernoitall
2 years ago
In the end, the citizenry gets the government they voted for.
The politicians; their policies; and those who supported them (i.e. media, bureaucrats, big tech, big pharma, etc,.) can be, and are often criticized … but when it’s time to vote the citizenry gets the government they voted for.
The problem is not who “serves” us; the problem is in fact… us!
mrm
mrm
2 years ago
Reply to  Nuddernoitall
“In the end, the citizenry gets the government they voted for.” – No, the citizenry gets the government lumpen voted for.
prumbly
prumbly
2 years ago
Reply to  Nuddernoitall
I rarely get the government I voted for. Democracy is always for other people.
StukiMoi
StukiMoi
2 years ago
Reply to  prumbly
Hence why The Founders; who conveniently happened to be among the last of the literates in US government; kept harping on near radical federalism, entirely literary interpretation of the amendments, from unconstrained access to any military weapon to screaming fire in crowded theatres to one’s heart’s content; and no more than 25000 people per representative. As specifically opposed to the current nonsense of “elections have the consequence that I can arbitrarily rule you in any way I feel like as long as I keep crassly shrieking demooooocraciiiiii!!!”
Jack
Jack
2 years ago
Reply to  Nuddernoitall
The government I want often does not run for election
Robert QSLV
Robert QSLV
2 years ago
Reply to  Jack
Work harder, vote harder and be a dancing chicken for Soros.
Robert QSLV
Robert QSLV
2 years ago
Reply to  Robert QSLV
…..and Schwab
RonJ
RonJ
2 years ago
“My email is full from mortgage companies and CEOs [telling] me how unbelievably shocked they are by this move.”
Klaus Schwab said to imagine it is 2030 and you own nothing, even your clothes.
KyleW
KyleW
2 years ago
It’s the same principle as progressive tax rates. The rich pay more and the poor get a break. I know it doesn’t make sense to reward people with bad credit scores with low interest rates, but that’s why they’re doing it.
Jack
Jack
2 years ago
Reply to  KyleW
Ever since income tax started, people who work hard have always subsidized the non-motivated.
When you work hard, contribute more, and thus make more money -> you must not only pay a higher $ value in tax for the same services as the non-motivated, you even pay a higher % of your earnings in tax.
astroboy
astroboy
2 years ago
Reply to  KyleW
Um, no. The lower income groups pay a much higher percentage of their income in taxes. Warren Buffet has pointed out that his taxes are a lower percentage of his income than his secretary’s, who’s probably well paid but I doubt is a billionaire.
alexwest
alexwest
2 years ago
funny . USA gov really really wants to emulate USSR!
as Russian who caught few years as teenager i might add . IT WAS NOT ALL PRETTY in USSR!.
and taking into account about 200+ mln of weapon items in private hands it is just plain scary for USA ppl.
ILHawk
ILHawk
2 years ago
Reply to  alexwest
Lazy cliche. We have our own brand of stupidity. Promoting home ownership in the USSR?
You about made my spit out my breakfast.
StukiMoi
StukiMoi
2 years ago
Reply to  ILHawk
Noones promoting home ownership in these Totalitarian States of Dystopia. Just mortgage enslavement.
Anyone wanting to promote home ownership, would focus on getting rid of all rules and restrictions which makes homes more expensive than they otherwise would be. That way, more people could afford to own homes.
All this childish tripe is about, is to force some to pay not only their own grossly inflated mortgage to useless deadweight banksters; but now also part of someone elses.
alexwest
alexwest
2 years ago
=Median price is timely but highly inaccurate.
I wonder what does it mean?
Median price is MATH TERM . it means: half of transactions are below,half are higher!
it is math. it can not be wrong!
might be data gathering or methology of is wrong??
KidHorn
KidHorn
2 years ago
Reply to  alexwest
Must be the data used in the calculation is inaccurate.
shamrock
shamrock
2 years ago
This is hyperbole right? Higher credit scores will still have a lower rate it’s just the difference will be smaller. And mortgages from credit unions will look even more attractive for quality borrowers. Fannie/Freddie rules don’t dictate the terms every mortgage lender provides.
KidHorn
KidHorn
2 years ago
Reply to  shamrock
The GSEs are close to 60% of new mortgages. And the other lenders will raise rates for good credit borrowers too because the competition is charging more.
prumbly
prumbly
2 years ago
It’s no more insane than anything else going on at the moment. Just another grain of corn:
Talking to her, he realized how easy
it was to present an appearance of orthodoxy while having no grasp
whatever of what orthodoxy meant. In a way, the world-view of the Party
imposed itself most successfully on people incapable of understanding
it. They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of
reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was
demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events
to notice what was happening. By lack of understanding they remained
sane. They simply swallowed everything, and what they swallowed did them
no harm, because it left no residue behind, just as a grain of corn
will pass undigested through the body of a bird
1984
Tawdzilla
Tawdzilla
2 years ago

Unreal. Our country is going downhill fast. There’s no incentive to follow the rules anymore.

prumbly
prumbly
2 years ago
Reply to  Tawdzilla
Oh you must follow the rules. The new rules.
Tawdzilla
Tawdzilla
2 years ago
Reply to  prumbly
What exactly are the “new” rules?
Everyone stop working, stop paying taxes, and join the Free Sh*t Army?
StukiMoi
StukiMoi
2 years ago
Reply to  Tawdzilla
Those have been the rules since 1971.
You think anyone among the Americans floating around in yachts in The Med ever did anything to “earn” it? Aside from collecting welfare checks from the Fed? Which The Fed funded by stealing from the dwindling number still naive enough to try playing by what they were indoctrinated into believing were “rules.”
“From each according to talent and hard they work; To each according to closeness to The Fed” has always been the only modus operandi of the financialist wing of the Marxist movement.
dtj
dtj
2 years ago
There’s a guy on youtube called “economic ninja” (aka “real estate ninja”) who covered this recently. He’s a bit of a salesman and “click bait doom and gloomer” but I find his commentary about the economy & housing pretty spot on.
The PTB are in a bit of a panic to prop up housing and keep prices up. Also witness the recent extension by FHA of “COVID-19 loss mitigation options to all eligible borrowers who fall
behind on their mortgage payments, regardless of the cause of their
delinquency.”
dtj
dtj
2 years ago
Reply to  dtj
Meant to add: Congress is also trying to push through a bill to give $25,000 in free money to buy a house. The catch is, you need to be a “first generation” home buyer. No matter your age, if your parents owned a house, you don’t qualify.
michiganmoon
michiganmoon
2 years ago
Reply to  dtj
Insane. We’ll be Venezuela by 2032.
Bam_Man
Bam_Man
2 years ago
Reply to  michiganmoon
Too optimistic.
2027 at the very latest.
KidHorn
KidHorn
2 years ago
Reply to  dtj
How are they going to check that? A lot of inner city youths don’t even know who their parents are.
assmasterson
assmasterson
2 years ago
Reply to  KidHorn
A lot of inner city youths don’t know who your parents are either.
Matt3
Matt3
2 years ago
It fits with the way the country works. When you pay a lot into Medicare and then retire, you pay more than people that didn’t pay in.
It’s a great help to lenders as otherwise these people wouldn’t qualify for loans. This will make money and then when the debtors don’t pay, our government can bail out the lenders.
StukiMoi
StukiMoi
2 years ago
Reply to  Matt3
“It’s a great help to lenders as otherwise these people wouldn’t qualify for loans. This will make money and then when the debtors don’t pay, our government can bail out the lenders.”
Touche!!!
Mike 2112
Mike 2112
2 years ago
If you work for a living then stop voting democrat.
Zardoz
Zardoz
2 years ago
Reply to  Mike 2112
And vote kook? Not a compelling alternative.
RonJ
RonJ
2 years ago
Reply to  Zardoz
Voting Democrat is kook.
ILHawk
ILHawk
2 years ago
Reply to  RonJ
That and voting Repuplican. One will tax you to death and the other will let someone else starve you to death.
TexasTim65
TexasTim65
2 years ago
Reply to  Zardoz
There are 3rd party candidates like Libertarians.
If enough people start voting 3rd party then there would actually be a viable 3rd party alternative in this country.
KidHorn
KidHorn
2 years ago
Reply to  Mike 2112
Kennedy looks really reasonable compared to the others. Probably means he has no shot.
Six000mileyear
Six000mileyear
2 years ago
Someone is going to challenge the constitutionality of the rule.
Captain Ahab
Captain Ahab
2 years ago
The reason it is really quite simple. Let me ‘splain it to you.
See, progressives are essentially irrational. If they were rational thinkers, they wouldn’t be progressive, would they? They’d understand how the world works–and two fundamental principles of…
1) You get more of something if you subsidize it.
2) You get less of something if you tax it.
Progressives want more high-risk, low credit borrowers (to vote for them), so punish people who save for a deposit, and build their credit scores.
Let’s pretend it is really about getting a house–that way the idiots who save won’t complain.
worleyeoe
worleyeoe
2 years ago
Reply to  Captain Ahab
Agreed, which ultimately means they want unchecked power. They’re tired of sharing power. They want it all.
Everything starts to go sideways when they come for our guns.
2024 is shaping up to be a really big election year. They seem to get more important every 2 to 4 years, don’t they?
Maximus_Minimus
Maximus_Minimus
2 years ago
Reply to  Captain Ahab
Progressives and their ideological mates are half-wits, who view themselves as carriers of the only pure truth. The others are retrogrades according to their dogma.
Usually come to power following historic upheavals like wars. In the present context, it’s financial shenanigans of the banking cabal, printing and ensuing unaffordable property bubble.
Zardoz
Zardoz
2 years ago
You guys should get a room
Maximus_Minimus
Maximus_Minimus
2 years ago
Reply to  Zardoz
The above is the one-sentence extract from a book from a well-know writer, an eyewitness of another cultural revolution following the upheaval of WW2.
Your soulmates in the asylum are waiting for you.
Carl_R
Carl_R
2 years ago
Wow, I’m speechless. I guess that if I want to take out a mortgage, I should let some credit cards get delinquent for awhile first?
Mish
Mish
2 years ago
Reply to  Carl_R
Zardoz
Zardoz
2 years ago
Reply to  Carl_R
Turns out my FICO is low average because I haven’t had a loan in 25 years. Winning!
Cocoa
Cocoa
2 years ago
Reply to  Zardoz
Exactly your FICO score gets lower the better you are at paying it off too. If they cannot make maximum interest off of you , they consider the whole loan a pain in the butt. So everyone who pays the scheduled payments, they get royally HOSED
Jack
Jack
2 years ago
Reply to  Zardoz
A lot of people have noticed that if you pay off ur credit card full every month, credit card companies will quickly try increase your limit into the high 5-figures – which then accelerates your credit score into the mid-800s. All you need to do is pay off your debts monthly – something the government does not do,
StukiMoi
StukiMoi
2 years ago
Reply to  Jack
Of course.
The ape-army wouldn’t, heck couldn’t even if they wanted to, come up with a not-entirely-arbitrary “measure” to “classify” people according to. They’re progressives, after all: Born and raised to believe that regurgitating blind faith in entirely arbitrary, purely nonsensical “scores” and “measures” and “classifications” makes them sound “smart” or something. Besides, the real world is way to difficult to comprehend for the one-two-many crowd, who are he only ones dumb enough to fall for any of progressivism.
Sunriver
Sunriver
2 years ago
VA loans.
0% down and no PMI
However, 6.25% mortgage rate.
My son in law would like to purchase a home in Boise (8 years military experience), but monthly cost of 30 year mortgage is at $2,200 a month for a basic home. His family makes $80,000 a year, but that is not enough for Boise.
When $80,000 a year is not enough to buy a house in Boise, Bubblicious is the only word that fits.
Jcbl
Jcbl
2 years ago
One step closer to communism
StukiMoi
StukiMoi
2 years ago
Reply to  Jcbl
We’ve been there for 50 to 150 years already. I suppose if picking favourite among turds in a sewer is one’s thing, there may be communist vs even more so…. As a practical matter, it’s just more of the same, though. From the competent and industrious, to the useless and deadweight; but connected.
Dr Funkenstein
Dr Funkenstein
2 years ago
From each according to his ability to each according to his need. Brandon learned that from Uncle Karl M.
The people with good credit are traitorous scum who got their riches from Russia. It’s your patriotic duty to be in debt up to your eyeballs.
This way when the lower scores default, as they inevitably will, they will owe less money
TexasTim65
TexasTim65
2 years ago
Reply to  Dr Funkenstein
If Brando was actually lucid he would never approve stuff like this.
It’s getting done behind the scenes with Brandon’s face on it since he no longer knows what’s going on and is going to be a perfect 1 term patsy for stuff like this.
Captain Ahab
Captain Ahab
2 years ago
Reply to  TexasTim65
Would it have happened with Trump? (Resounding NO!)
We paid a heavy price for no mean tweets.
Zardoz
Zardoz
2 years ago
Reply to  TexasTim65
Sad thing is, he’s coming back if he don’t keel over first.
worleyeoe
worleyeoe
2 years ago
Reply to  Zardoz
Not a big Trump persona fan, but boy will it be fun watching the heads of all those progressives explode if he’s re-elected.
They’ll probably try to impeach every time he opens his big, fat mouth.
I don’t see him kneeling over, but I do see him taking a bushwhacker to a lot of FBI bureaucrats.
KidHorn
KidHorn
2 years ago
Reply to  worleyeoe
Wait. What? I thought they all moved to Canada after he won in 2016.
Jack
Jack
2 years ago
Reply to  Zardoz
Looking at Biden looks like when you visiting the old age home.
Hilarious videos of him mumbling incomprehensibly and even funnier, shaking hands with people who are not there.
Maximus_Minimus
Maximus_Minimus
2 years ago
Reply to  Dr Funkenstein
If you listen to the justification, it’s a practical application of the woke agenda. Trying to cure historic injustices going back centuries.
It is communist as much as communism tried to cure imagined historic injustices going back to the dawn of time.
Woke agenda is the ideological mate of the cultural revolution.
michiganmoon
michiganmoon
2 years ago
Yes, no one should be surprised by this. Biden and Kamala ran on equity. If you voted for them you had to have known that nonsense like this would be in the works.
Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett
2 years ago
“New Rule: The Better Your Credit Score the Higher Your Mortgage Rate”
The Onion: I. Got. Nothing.

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