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Live Rates Exposed on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace

Date:April 24, 2009 | Author:Nate Moch | Category:Mortgages

In a manner never before seen in the mortgage industry, Zillow Mortgage Marketplace has exposed its rates and marketplace vibrancy in a new module for all to see. In addition to offering the most up-to-date mortgage rates in the U.S., (continually calculated from quotes submitted every hour), the marketplace is now showing updated volumes and live quotes as they arrive. This new, transparent module showcases the vibrancy and activity in Zillow’s ever-growing Mortgage Marketplace.

The mortgage rates in this new module are calculated as averages of thousands of quotes that come through the marketplace. The Volume Today counter shows the number of quotes submitted for each program type, reset to zero every midnight. The marketplace activity counters keep a running total of the marketplace stats over time. The last quote column shows new quotes as they arrive and whether they are higher or lower than the 60-minute average.

We hope you find this new vibrancy module useful (and fun!). Go ahead and submit a loan request to see the rates for which you qualify.

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Responses (9)

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Mortgage Matters 10:08 AM - Apr 25,2009

Nice mortgage rate quote. I checked it against my rate sheets and it’s ontime.
Arlington VA Homes 9:36 AM - Apr 26,2009

Can they syndicate thsi as a gadget for other real estate websites?
William Piontek 5:01 AM - Apr 28,2009

In his article, dated April 24, Nate Moch, declares, “Zillow Mortgage Marketplace has exposed its rates and marketplace vibrancy in a new module for all to see.” The irony of this statement is that you have exposed a broad miscalculation of monthly mortgage costs in your own system.

When a prospective homeowner looks up a home, among other information posted at the top of the listing is “monthly payment.” The amount quoted today, April 28, 2008, is .00426 times the principal. This would make a $100,000 mortgage cost $426 per month. According to the mortgage amortization table offered by Bankrate.com, this would assume a rate of interest on a 30 year loan of 3.09%. Your own rate sheet indicates the rate of 4.97% today. The correct monthly cost, by your own account, should be $534.99. Using and ARM or 15 mortgage does not substantially change this error.

The mortgage business is rife with “bait and switch” schemes by lenders who quote rates below their cost of funds. In your pursuit of transparency and truth in lending, you have exposed your own site as an unwitting tool for such tactics.
Nate Moch 12:12 PM - Apr 28,2009

William,
Thank you for your comment. At Zillow we take the accuracy of our rates and monthly payments very seriously. The rates we use to calculate the monthly payment come directly from our Mortgage Marketplace and are the most current market rates. If you check the site now, we are using rates of 4.95%.

However, when we calculate the monthly payments we assume a down payment of 20% since that is the assumption behind the mortgage rate. We want to be as accurate as possible. These down payment and mortgage rate assumptions are displayed and editable on every home. Just click the Edit button next to the down payment to view and edit them.
Thanks,
Nate
Commercial Real Estate Brokers 5:03 AM - Apr 29,2009

Very good tool.

Property values may still drop but with all the government spending, interest rates could start to rise. This may be the time to buy some real estate assets.
Whitman Metropolitan California Mortgages 12:50 PM - Apr 29,2009

It would be helpful if it also displayed the APR. Many people will look at this and think they can get a mortgage for that rate, when comparing it to their current quote from another lender, but it is apples to oranges because the fees could be completely different.
Mortgage Guy 8:43 AM - May 1,2009

I like this information, but as a LO, I wish you would show on the page (at least where everyone can plainly see right away), the assumptions you have when giving out these rate quotes. Maybe you do and I just don’t see them. I read that you assume a 20% down payment. That’s good but really just a start. Thanks to Fannie and Freddie guidelines, we have to take into account the type of loan, the term, LTV, credit score, and loan amount, among other things, when figuring out a rate. This is done for each client individually. Most consumers don’t understand this as the media has led them to believe that they can get whatever rate they want.

If you can inform your viewers that not only do rates change on a daily basis (sometimes more than once), and that many variables of a person’s loan must be taken into account before a rate is quoted, you’ll be putting yourself ahead of all the other big rate advertisers on the web, like Bankrate.com, LendingTree.com, etc.

Thank you…
Mortgage Guy
Loan Modification Zoom 4:55 PM - May 6,2009

Mortgage Guy,

I think Zillow is already far more useful and powerful than bankrate.com and lendingtree.com — even if their mortgage quote service was subpar (which it most definitely is not), the fact that they have the most widely used value calculator on the web definitely provides an asset to homeowners that puts them well ahead of the competition.
akne tedavisi 4:47 AM - Jun 27,2009

Not saying Baldwin is not in error here, but these taxes are ruining America.