Just went back and looked at what mortgage rates were doing around September 2023, and man, things were pretty rough for home buyers back then. The 30-year fixed was sitting around 7.68%, which honestly felt pretty high at the time. If you were considering a 15-year mortgage instead, you could knock that down to about 6.81%, but your monthly payment would jump significantly since you're paying it off in half the time.

What struck me was the breakdown of costs. On a $100k loan at those September 2023 mortgage rates, you'd be looking at roughly $711 monthly just for principal and interest. Over 30 years, that adds up to like $156k in interest alone. The jumbo mortgage rates were slightly better at 7.43%, but still pretty steep.

The article also broke down how APR works versus just the interest rate—basically it includes all the lender fees, so it gives you the real picture of what you're actually paying. For that 30-year mortgage, the APR was 7.59%, which was higher than the week before. Rates back then were really influenced by Fed decisions and inflation concerns, which kept pushing them up.

Interesting to look back at that period and see how tight things were for borrowers. The recommendations about getting a solid credit score, keeping your debt-to-income ratio low, and putting down at least 20% to avoid PMI were all solid strategies even back in September 2023.