I have purchased new construction, and the procedure for the mortgage is to lock in your rate after the pre-dry wall meeting, (approx. 60 days prior to close).
Today I was able to lock in with a 30 yr fixed at 3.75%, no points.
In addition, the loan officer explained to me that my closing costs would decrease significantly from the previous estimates provided to me on the HUD-1 worksheet. Basically, I was expecting to bring around $5200 to close. When I locked this rate today, it also paid a 1.75% premium towards my closing costs, decreasing my remaining closing costs to around $600. This is great news, and I am sort of in disbelief. Here is the explanation the loan officer provided regarding the decrease in costs:
The 1.75% ( $4627 ) premium comes from NVR as a premium for locking this particular rate. This is how some banks advertise "no closing costs." They build the charges into the interest rate. Today since we the next best rate ( 3.5% ) costs 1.125% we don't want you to have to pay for that rate. So we offer you the first rate that comes with 0 cost. Today that happens to be 3.75% and fortunately for you it not only comes at 0 cost but the way it stacks up on the rate sheet it is paying a pretty significant premium that some banks hold on to, NVR Mortgage makes it a point to pass that premium on to their customers. Congratulations you locked into a superb interest rate and saved yourself over $4k at the same time!
I'm satisfied.
Liebs-
