Compare two lenders

What these pages do, and what they cannot

Each comparison prices the same loan twice — once at each lender’s median rate and median fees — and reports which side costs less over seven years. Seven years, not thirty, because that is roughly how long a mortgage is actually kept, and the disclosed APR assumes otherwise.

The numbers come from what borrowers received, not from a rate sheet. Three things follow from that, and they matter more than the headline.

Three things to keep in mind

A median is not a quote. HMDA has no credit scores, no loan-to-value, no income. Two lenders serving different borrowers will show different medians for reasons that have nothing to do with what either would offer you.

Fees and rate trade against each other. A lender whose borrowers buy discount points shows higher fees and a lower rate at the same time. That is why each page reports the share who bought points next to the fee figure, and why the seven-year cost is the number to read rather than either column alone.

The mix of business moves both. Government-backed purchase lending carries higher fees than conventional refinancing before anyone sets a price. Where two lenders overlap geographically, the state table further down is the fairer comparison.

What these pages are good for is the question no editorial review answers: on identical terms, what did the gap between these two actually cost over the years someone keeps the loan.