I found a handy tool online at Google.com/ComparisonAds/Mortgages. It is a web page that lets you compare mortgage rates offered by several different lenders. But, it is better than just a bunch of advertising links with fixed rates displayed. This tool lets you enter several different parameters for your desired mortgage and then it calculates the various home mortgage interest rates that a handful of mortgages lenders are currently offering. Since the mortgage lenders pay Google some kind of advertising fee for being on their calculator page, you do not have to pay anything to use the tool.
To estimate current mortgage rates for your unique circumstances, this tool asks for ten bits of information: the type of transaction you are looking for (buying or refinancing), the price of the home you are looking for a loan for, your approximate credit rating, state and county in which the home is located, what loan type you want (like 30 year fixed), how many points you are willing to pay to secure a loan, what type of home you are seeking a loan for (single-family, condo, etc.), and it asks if the home will be your primary residence. It is interesting to play with the different parameters to see what effect your answers have on the outcome (it recalculates in real-time as you change input values). For instance, if you select a 30 year loan your interest rate will be higher than if you select a 15 year loan (don’t get too excited — the monthly payment on the 15 year loan will be higher because you are paying more principal every month to pay the loan off in half the time).Spend some time playing around with this calculator and you can get a good idea of what interest rate you will pay for the loan you are looking for. Then, with that information in hand, you can go to other online calculators to see what your monthly principal plus interest payment will be.

