Starting May 1, a new schedule of upfront fees applies to mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The new fees will increase costs to borrowers overall by 0.04 percentage point, according to the FHFA. That means a borrower who would have paid a 6.5 percent APR under the old fees would pay 6.54 percent now.
The new mortgage fee structure is meant to help people who historically have struggled to purchase their first homes, such as lower-income households that may have lower credit scores, by reducing the fees they pay.
According to a report from The Washington Times, homebuyers with a credit score of 680 or higher will reportedly have to pay about $40 per month more than people with worse credit when taking out a home loan of $400,000. For a traditional 30-year mortgage, this means that the borrower will pay about $14,400 more over the life of the loan.
