Remember back in January 2023 when mortgage rates jan 2023 were climbing? I was looking at some old data and it's wild to see how things have shifted since then. The 30-year fixed was sitting at 6.86% at that time, and 15-year mortgages were at 5.95%. People were pretty concerned about those levels back then.

What struck me about mortgage rates jan 2023 is how they'd jumped from just a week prior - the 30-year went up from 6.72% in the previous week. If you had a hundred grand mortgage at that 6.86% rate, you're looking at roughly $656 monthly just for principal and interest, which adds up to over $136k in total interest by the end. The jumbo mortgage rates were even higher at 6.92%. For anyone considering a 5/1 ARM, those were sitting around 5.49%.

The thing about mortgage rates jan 2023 that people often overlook is understanding APR versus just the interest rate. APR includes all the lender fees over the loan term, so it gives you the real picture of what you're actually paying. A lot of folks were refinancing decisions back then, trying to figure out if locking in a new rate made sense compared to their existing mortgage.

What really determined how much house someone could actually afford came down to basics - your income, existing debt, debt-to-income ratio, down payment size, and credit score. Those factors haven't changed, but the mortgage rates jan 2023 environment definitely made the math tougher for borrowers compared to the years before. Interesting to look back and see where we were at that point.