Most articles on this subject tell you to improve your credit score and shop around. Both are true and neither is very useful, because they do not tell you what a lender is actually doing when it produces your number.
A mortgage rate is not one price. It is a base price for the program and the day, adjusted up or down by a specific list of characteristics of your loan. Those adjustments are published, they are mechanical, and once you know what is on the list you can see which parts of your file are still worth changing and which are already settled.
Here is the list, roughly in order of how much it moves the number.
The largest single input, and it is priced in tiers rather than on a smooth curve. The gap between a 719 and a 720 can be larger than the gap between a 680 and a 700, because one crosses a tier line and the other does not.
This is the practical part: if you are sitting a few points below a tier break, tell your loan officer before you lock. Paying a card down below 30% of its limit, or having a reporting error corrected, can sometimes move you across in a few weeks. It is the only item on this list where a small, fast action occasionally produces a large result.
Also worth knowing: mortgage lenders use older FICO scoring models than the score your credit card app shows you, and they take the middle of three bureau scores. The number you have been watching is usually not the number that prices your loan.
How much you are borrowing against what the property is worth. More equity means less risk, and pricing improves at the standard breakpoints — and below 80%, mortgage insurance drops out of the payment entirely on a conventional loan.
If you are close to a breakpoint, ask what the next one is worth. Sometimes a few thousand dollars more down pays for itself quickly; sometimes it does not and the cash is better kept in reserves.
A home you live in prices better than a second home, which prices better than a rental. This is not negotiable and it is not something to be creative about — occupancy is certified at closing.
A single-family home is the baseline. Condominiums, manufactured homes and two-to-four unit properties each carry their own adjustment. Condo pricing in particular surprises people, and it is worth knowing before you fall for the unit rather than after.
Conventional, FHA, VA, USDA and jumbo all price differently, and the headline rate is a poor way to compare them because it ignores mortgage insurance. An FHA loan often quotes a lower rate than conventional and still costs more per month once its insurance is included — and unlike conventional PMI, FHA's premium usually never comes off.
Compare payments, not rates. If you are eligible for VA, compare nothing — it wins.
You can buy the rate down by paying points at closing. One point is 1% of the loan amount. Whether it is worth it is a single calculation: divide the cost of the points by the monthly savings, and that is how many months you have to keep the loan to break even.
If the break-even is five years and you expect to move or refinance in three, points are a bad deal no matter how attractive the lower rate looks. Ask for the break-even in months, in writing.
This is also the biggest source of misleading rate comparisons. A quote with two points paid will always look better than a quote with none. Make every lender quote the same point structure or the comparison means nothing.
A 15-day lock prices better than a 60-day lock, because the lender is taking less market risk. Locking longer than you need costs money; locking shorter than your closing timeline costs more, because extensions are expensive. Match the lock to a realistic closing date rather than an optimistic one.
Very small loans price worse, because the fixed cost of originating them is spread across less money. Crossing the conforming limit into jumbo changes the pricing model entirely. Sitting just over a limit is worth a conversation — occasionally a slightly larger down payment moves you back under and saves more than it costs.
The base rate itself. Mortgage pricing follows the market for mortgage-backed securities, which responds to inflation data, Treasury yields and Federal Reserve policy. No lender is meaningfully cheaper than the market; what lenders differ on is margin, fees and how well they structure your file.
Which is the actual argument for working with someone who will run your file two or three different ways before quoting it. The structure is where the savings are.
See today's Texas rates, or ask us to price your file two ways and show you both.
Last reviewed: August 2026.
Rates and pricing adjustments change daily and vary by borrower and property. Nothing here is a rate quote or a commitment to lend. Texas United Mortgage, LLC, NMLS #2442778. Equal Housing Lender.