Mortgage Home Loans at Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) Today

Although lending in general has tightened up and is subject to greater scrutiny than it was just two years ago, home equity based loans or mortgage loans are still a popular option when a significant amount of cash is needed. These home loans allow borrowing to take place against equity in a home. Essentially the loans create or extend a mortgage against the portion of the home that is not already subject to an existing mortgage.

At Bank of America today current home equity loan APR's are 6.89%. Home equity loans behave like mortgages in that there are fixed payments for a pre-set duration of time, like 30 years for example. Home equity lines of credit start at 4.37% on an annualized basis.

Home loan rates above assume a Combined Loan to Value (CLTV) ratio of 60% or less. The maximum CLTV allowed is 80%. Interest rates may be higher for higher CLTV's. The CLTV is the combined amounts of all mortgages on the property divided by the properties assessed actual value at the point in time of the loan origination.  So a house appraised at $200,000 with a mortgage principle balance of $80,000 and a home equity loan of $20,000 would have a CLTV of 50%.