Been looking back at mortgage rates from October 2020 and it's wild how low they got. At that point, 30-year mortgages were sitting around 2.9%, 20-year was 2.78%, and 15-year was under 2.4%. Even the adjustable rate mortgages were creeping up to 3.6%, but that wasn't competitive against the fixed rates at the time.

The math on these was interesting if you actually crunched the numbers. Say you borrowed 100k on a 30-year - you're looking at around 416 bucks a month for principal and interest. Jump to a 20-year and you'd pay 543, so about 127 more per month, but you'd pocket almost 20k in interest savings over the life of the loan. The 15-year was even more aggressive - 662 a month but you'd save over 30k in interest compared to stretching it out 30 years.

What people were debating back then was the lock versus float decision. If you were closing within 30 days, locking in made sense since rates were already pretty low. But if closing was 45 to 60 days out, floating gave you a shot at catching rates if they dropped, which was the real gamble. Nobody knew if October 2020 rates were the floor or if they'd dip lower, so floating seemed worth the extra fee for anyone not in a rush.

The whole rate environment was just compressed back then. You had lenders all competing hard on these historical lows, so shopping around actually mattered - small differences in closing costs could add up quick.