Never take the first offer.
It's a general rule to tell clients who are navigating the homebuying process, however its one rule that is often overlooked when they shop for a mortgage.
"Once people identify the house they want, they just want to get it done. The mortgage is an afterthought," says Tendayi Kapfidze, chief economist at LendingTree. "It’s a complex financial transaction and people are intimidated. They already have so many other things to think of with the home purchase itself. The mortgage is thought of in a more binary way that either gets approved or doesn’t. They don't think about the cost of it as much as they should."
Here's a look at the 12 housing markets where borrowing clients can save the most over the life of their loan by shopping around for a mortgage, according to LendingTree.
The data is ranked by the interest savings over the lifetime of 30-year fixed-rate mortgages on an analysis across 50 metro areas, based on rates from the week ending May 5. The Mortgage Rate Competition Index measures the basis point spread between high and low APRs offered to users through the LendingTree marketplace.