Current 15-Year Mortgage Rates

Homeowners typically choose 15-year mortgage rates to save thousands of dollars in interest charges compared with 30-year mortgages. However, a 15-year loan term comes with a larger payment, which may put the squeeze on your monthly budget and make more expensive homes unaffordable. 

The 15-year mortgages rates chart below features daily rates offered by LendingTree partners nationwide.

Fifteen-year mortgage rates are usually lower than the rates offered on longer-term mortgages like 30-year fixed-rate loans. Checking rates regularly is a good idea considering they change daily, and sometimes even hourly. 

How 15-year, fixed-mortgage rates are determined

Mortgage quotes displayed on LendingTree LoanExplorer℠, including loan pricing data, rates and fees, are provided by third-party data providers including, but not limited to, Mortech®, a registered trademark of Zillow; LoanXEngine, a product of Mortgage Builder Software, Inc. and LoanTek, Inc.

A 15-year, fixed-rate mortgage is a home loan that you repay over a 15-year term (the term of a loan is the number of years you have to repay it). In exchange for paying off the loan faster than you would with a 30-year mortgage, you’ll have a higher mortgage payment than a longer-term loan. 

Fifteen-year mortgage rates are usually lower than longer-term rates. The shorter payoff timeline slashes thousands of dollars off your total interest bill compared with a 30-year mortgage. The table below shows the monthly payment and total interest charges on a $250,000 loan at a 2.25%, 15-year rate compared with a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage rate of 2.75%.

The results: The total interest savings of $72,628.91 of a 15-year mortgage costs you an extra $617.11 every month. 

Interest rates may rise slightly in 2021, after dropping to record lows in 2020, according to Tendayi Kapfidze, chief economist for LendingTree. However, with 30-year mortgages expected to average near 3%, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to get a 15-year refinance rate under the 3% mark. However, if you’re buying, you may feel more payment pain with a shorter term: Kapfidze predicts house prices will rise 4% to 7% this year.

Because your payment is higher with a 15-year mortgage rate, it’s important to make sure you shop for the best rate. There are four simple steps you can take:

• • • Spruce up your credit scores. A credit score of 740 is likely to get you the lowest rate. Keeping your credit balances at zero and paying bills on time will go a long way toward a pristine credit score. 
    • Save up for a bigger down payment. Lenders typically charge more for low down-payment loans because of the higher risk a borrower will default. Adding extra money reduces that risk and could snag you a lower rate. 
    • Shop multiple lenders. Gathering interest-rate quotes from three to five mortgage lenders could save you thousands in interest and closing costs. Rates change daily, so make sure you collect loan estimates on the same day.
    • Consider paying mortgage points. Paying a mortgage point, which equals 1% of your loan amount, may lower your rate by as much as .25%. Just make sure you’ll be in the house long enough to recoup the costs, more commonly called a “breakeven.” Your breakeven is calculated by dividing the cost of the point by the monthly savings you receive from the lower rate.

If you’re trying to decide on 15- versus 30-year mortgage rates, there are four things to consider: 

• • • How long it takes to pay the loan off
    • Monthly payment, the interest rate and the 
    • Life-of-loan interest costs

The table below provides a quick glimpse of the differences:

You should choose a 15-year, fixed-rate mortgage if you: 

• • • Can afford a higher payment
    • Want to pay off your mortgage faster
    • Want a quicker way to build home equity

You should choose a 30-year fixed rate mortgage if you

• • • Want the lowest monthly payment possible
    • Need room in your monthly budget for other expenses or savings goals
    • Don’t want to lock yourself into a 15-year payment schedule

Pro tip: A mortgage calculator is a great tool for comparing the cost and benefits of a 15-year versus a 30-year mortgage rate. It even creates a mortgage payment schedule for you, which shows you how much principal and interest you pay every month for the term of each loan.

You can refinance an existing 15-year mortgage rate and replace it with a new lower-rate 15-year loan. The process is essentially the same as any other refinance. Your lender verifies your credit scores, income and equity to ensure you meet the minimum mortgage requirements. 

However, government-backed refinance loans come with some extra hoops for you to jump through to switch from a 30-year to a 15-year term. 

Conventional rate-and-term refinance. As long as you qualify for the higher payment, swapping your 30-year fixed loan for a 15-year loan should be straightforward.  Just monitor your DTI ratio with the higher payment; conventional guidelines won’t allow total monthly debt including the new mortgage that makes up over 50% of your earnings each month. 

FHA streamline refinance. Lenders approved by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) may offer the FHA streamline refinance option to homeowners with a current FHA loan. You can skip the income docs and an appraisal, but there’s a catch: To switch from a 30-year term to a 15-year mortgage, the refi rate must be lower than what you’re paying now and the new monthly payment can’t increase by more than $50. 

VA IRRRL. Short for “interest rate reduction refinance loan,” the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) IRRRL gives military borrowers with a current VA loan a simple way to refinance without documenting income or the hassle of an appraisal. However, if you flip from a long-term to mortgage to a shorter term, your payment can’t rise by 20% or more.