The Yahoo view: Bank of America is a good addition to your shortlist of lenders for several reasons, including closing costs and down payment assistance available to eligible home buyers. It is also one of the best mortgage refinance lenders out there.
Bank of America is known for its commercial, industrial, and investment banking prowess. But what about getting a home loan from such a financial giant?
Whether you’re looking for a 3% down payment mortgage or a way to unlock the value of your home with a home equity line of credit, BofA offers a big-bank menu of mortgages.
Key benefits
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Bank of America offers grants of up to $7,500 toward closing costs and up to $10,000 toward down payment assistance for qualified buyers in many, but not all, states. This financial assistance makes BofA one of the best mortgage lenders for first-time buyers.
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A home-buyer program for medical professionals allows borrowers to make lower down payments and exclude student loans from debt limits. Residents and fellows can also close on a loan 90 days before starting a new position.
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Existing customers may qualify for an origination fee or interest rate deductions to Preferred Rewards members. You’ll likely have to sign up to draft your mortgage payments from a BofA bank account to qualify.
Need to know
Visit Bank of America’s Home Mortgage Loans website to get started.
Bank of America Mortgage offers the following types of home loans:
Bank of America Mortgage does not offer the following types of home loans:
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USDA loans
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Interest-only mortgages
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Lot loans
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Construction loans
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Guest house loans
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Second home loans
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Nonqualified mortgages
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Investment property loans
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Energy efficient mortgages
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Renovation loans
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1% down payment mortgages
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Buydown loans
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Bridge loans
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Manufactured home mortgages
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Piggy-back loans
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ITIN mortgages
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Home equity loans (Fixed-rate HELOCs — which can be similar to home equity loans — are available, but more on that below)
Dig deeper: The differences between HELOCs and home equity loans
An expansive first-time home buyer section on BofA’s website offers educational articles about the mortgage process, tips, tools, FAQs, and a breakdown of loan options.
Bank of America offers the standard first-time buyer loan programs such as FHA, VA, and a 3% down payment loan for income-qualifying borrowers.
Contact information is easy to find, and you can schedule an appointment, call, locate a banking center near you, or launch a chat. And it’s all conveniently placed just under the “Get started” or “Learn more” buttons for a digital loan application to prequalify for a mortgage.
Learn more: See Bank of America in Yahoo’s list of best lenders for first-time home buyers
Drawing cash from your home’s value is easy with a home equity line of credit or home equity loan.
On the day we visited the website, Bank of America was promoting a discounted introductory rate on a $100,000 HELOC. The bank also offers a fixed-rate option. HELOCs are often variable-rate loans. With the option of converting all or a portion of a HELOC (with a minimum credit line of $5,000) to a fixed rate, it can work similarly to a home equity loan.
However, if you don’t convert the entire HELOC to a fixed rate, you would likely end up making two payments: one for the variable-interest line of credit and another for the fixed-interest home equity loan balance.
BofA says a HELOC application takes “about 15 minutes” to complete. You can visit a bank location or schedule a mobile closing service to sign the loan.
BofA has no application fees, closing costs, or annual fees on its HELOCs, and there is also no fee to convert to a fixed-rate home equity loan.
Dig deeper: How a fixed-rate HELOC works
Mortgage rates are easy enough to find on the Bank of America website. They are on the main Home Mortgage Loans page. On the day we checked, the default featured rates were built on assumptions of a 740 or higher credit score, a 20% down payment, and under one discount point.
You can update these generic rates by entering a purchase price, down payment, and ZIP code in the calculator just above the interest rate table. Interestingly, the calculator defaults to a down payment of 5% or more — even though BofA offers 3% down mortgages.
Learn more: How to get the lowest mortgage rates in 2025
Yahoo Finance uses 2023 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data comprised of 10 million home loan applications to score mortgage lenders on issued mortgage rates and total loan costs. We score each lender on a scale of 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest).
For example, regarding mortgage rates, a lender with a lower score charged a higher-than-median mortgage interest rate for loans issued in 2023. A higher score would indicate that a lender granted lower-than-median home loan interest rates to borrowers in 2023.
With total home loan costs, a lower score would indicate that a lender charged higher than median total home loan costs in 2023. A high rating would mean that a mortgage lender offered lower than median all-in home loan costs in 2023.
What this means: Bank of America Mortgage offered a lower-than-median mortgage rate of 6.25% and a lower-than-median total loan cost of $5,525.11 to borrowers in 2023.
At the top of the home loans page is a box with a big “Apply now” button. BofA touts a “Digital Mortgage Experience” (with a trademark, no less) and says getting the results from a prequalifying application may take about an hour.
Mortgage preapproval applications require more information and will take longer to complete. A preapproval letter will arrive by mail within 10 business days or can be accessed much sooner online.
Learn more: How to get a mortgage preapproval
When it comes to resources to help you think through the home-buying process, things are pretty streamlined. Under “Resources and tools,” you’ll find three calculators listed: affordability, mortgage payments, and closing costs.
Other tools are listed in the bottom menu.
Dig deeper: How much house can I afford? Use our free home affordability calculator.
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BofA Home Loans gets our highest rating (5) for Affordability because it offers so many loan choices. A large part of affording a home often comes down to choosing the right mortgage.
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By offering lower-than-average interest rates and total home loan costs, Bank of America can be a strong addition to your mortgage lender comparison shopping.
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Advertised rates have high credit standards, and discount points aren’t adjustable.
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More tools, such as calculators and learning resources, would be appreciated.
Read more: What are mortgage discount points, and should you pay for them?
If you have skimpy savings for a down payment, Rocket Mortgage is worth checking out. While BofA offers a 3% down payment mortgage, Rocket Mortgage provides a 1% down loan.
But Bank of America stands out for its generous home-buying assistance programs. Rocket matches the $7,500 grant toward a down payment and closing costs that BofA offers; however, Bank of America also kicks in up to $10,000 in down payment assistance to borrowers in some states.
If you like a combination of online convenience with an in-person option, Bank of America delivers with its “Digital Mortgage Experience” and branches nationwide. However, its big-bank competitor, Chase, also has an online loan application and preapproval with mortgage lending advisors in most states.
Bank of America shines with its home equity line of credit, which has no application fees, closing costs, or annual fees. Chase offers a cash-out refinance for equity access.
BofA offers a clickable “Call us” link on its mortgage page that opens a Facetime call. Not up for that? Here are plain old phone numbers: For existing mortgages, call (800) 669-6607. For new mortgage applications, call (800) 270-5746.
Whether you apply for a mortgage loan online or in person, BofA says that you will need to have these documents handy to get started: W-2 forms for the last two years, recent pay stubs, bank and investment statements, tax returns, a copy of the home purchase agreement, and, if you are self-employed, a copy of your most recent profit and loss statement.
Using the Bank of America locator page, choose Home Loans Specialist from the Financial Center Services drop-down menu. You will see a map showing locations, hours of operation, and directions to offices near you.
Methodology:
Yahoo Finance reviews and scores mortgage lenders with quintile scoring in five primary categories: 1) Interest rates. Using 2023 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data comprised of 10 million home loan applications, we score mortgage lenders on issued mortgage rates below or above the annual median of reporting lenders. 2) Affordability. A measure of loan product availability and the willingness of a lender to offer government-backed loans, low down payments, down payment assistance, and consideration of nontraditional credit. 3) Loan costs. HMDA data is again analyzed, and lenders are rated based on total loan costs compared to the annual median. 4) Rate transparency. The ability of a website user to obtain a mortgage interest rate estimate. We score lenders based on whether rates are enhanced with discount points or high credit score requirements, disclaimers revealing rate assumptions, sample advertised rates, and whether adjustable or no discount point rate estimates are available. 5) Online features. An analysis of the educational material, calculators, and additional resources available to users.
Review of Nationwide Multistate Licensing System (NMLS) data on regulatory actions can trigger a penalty to the score of any lender with a consumer mortgage-related administrative or enforcement action within the past five years.
Advertisers or sponsorships do not influence ratings.
Editorial disclosure for mortgages:
The information in this article has not been reviewed or approved by any advertiser. The details on financial products, including interest rates and fees, are accurate as of the publish date. All products or services are presented without warranty. Check the lender’s website for the most current information. This site doesn’t include all currently available offers.
This article was edited by Laura Grace Tarpley.
