What Are Your Digits? U.S. Homeowners’ Awareness of Mortgage Interest Rates

• Less than half of American homeowners with a mortgage know their exact mortgage interest rate, down to the decimal point.
• Better-educated, higher-paid and older homeowners are more likely to know their exact mortgage interest rates.

The prospect of rising mortgage interest rates in coming weeks and months, however modest, is weighing on potential homebuyers currently in the market. But most existing homeowners have only a vague idea of the exact interest rate on their mortgage – if that.

More than half (52 percent) of U.S. homeowners with a mortgage either don’t know their exact mortgage interest rate or only have “a ballpark idea” of their precise mortgage interest rate, according to a recent Zillow survey.[1] Less than half (48 percent) of homeowner respondents with a mortgage said they knew their exact mortgage rate down to the decimal point (figure 1). Roughly one-third (32 percent) of all homeowners surveyed said they own their home outright, without a mortgage.

Some groups are more likely than others to know their exact mortgage rate:

• 53 percent of men said they know their precise mortgage rate, versus 42 percent of women.
• More than half (53 percent) of married respondents indicated they know their exact rate, compared to less than a third (32 percent) of single/never married respondents.
• In general, older adults indicated they are more likely to know their rate to the decimal point than younger adults: 57 percent of 50- to 54-year-olds versus 40 percent of 35- to 39-year-olds. One key exception is among 30- to 34-year-olds who have likely recently purchased a home or are currently on the market: 52 percent of these respondents said they knew their mortgage rate to the decimal point.
• More than half (52 percent) of homeowners with at least some college education, and two-thirds of respondents (66 percent) with a postgraduate degree said they knew their precise mortgage rate. Less than half (44 percent) of homeowners with at most a high school education said they knew their exact rate.
• Higher-income households indicated they are more likely to know their precise mortgage rate than lower-income households. Two-thirds (66 percent) of households with an annual income of $200,000 or more said they know their mortgage rate to the decimal point, compared to 57 percent of households earning between $100,000 and $125,000 and 27 percent of households earning less than $40,000.
• Asians are most likely to know their exact mortgage rate: 66 percent of Asian homeowners said they know their mortgage rate to the decimal, compared to 47 percent of whites, 46 percent of Hispanics and 40 percent of blacks.

But the best indicator of homeowners' awareness of their precise mortgage interest rate seems to be whether they are currently in the market for a new home or are thinking of jumping in soon. Almost three quarters (71 percent) of current homeowners with a mortgage who are in the market to buy a new home said they know their precise current mortgage rate, compared to 46 percent of those not expecting to buy again in the next three years.

[1] A survey of 1,010 American consumers conducted on behalf of Zillow by ORC International between November 30 and December 2, 2015.