As you consider buying a home, you’ll likely weigh different mortgage types. For most prospective buyers, a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is the top pick. It offers more manageable monthly payments because you’re stretching the loan over three decades as opposed to 10 or 15 years.

If you're hoping to buy your first home soon, searching for the best mortgage rates for first-time buyers is an essential part of the process. Here are the best rates currently available.

Whether or not today's drop in rates is meaningful depends on one's perspective, but in the context of recent rate movement, it's definitely noticeable.  The simplest way to think about the improvement is as follows: the average lender is now about an eighth of a percent lower in just over a week.