What can I expect to pay for a home loan this winter?

Q: What can I expect to pay for a home loan this winter?

A: While mortgage rates continue to be quite low by any historic measure, they are just a little higher than they were last January.

The average cost of a conventional 30-year fixed-rate home loan — the most popular way to finance a home — is up more than a quarter of a point.

The typical 30-year jumbo mortgage costs about a tenth of a point more.

Here's the current average cost of four major types of home loans according to our most recent weekly survey of major lenders:

• 4.11 percent for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages.

• 3.38 percent for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages.

• 3.46 percent for five-year adjustable rate mortgages.

• 4.08 percent for 30-year fixed-rate jumbo mortgages.

And that's just looking at the average cost of financing a home.

Devoting a little time to finding the best possible mortgage can save tens of thousands of dollars in interest over the life of the loan.

Savvy borrowers with decent credit can almost always pay a quarter to half point less than that.

You may have also noticed an unusual twist in today's lending market — the average jumbo loan now costs less than that of smaller conventional fixed-rate mortgages.

Jumbo loans are mortgages that are too large to be purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government-owned companies that buy or guarantee most of the mortgages issued by banks and other lenders.

The largest loans they can buy depend on where the home is located but range from $417,000 in most places to $625,000 in the nation's most expensive cities.

Jumbo mortgages are most needed by affluent buyers whose savings and earnings have rebounded from the recession more quickly and fully than those of middle-income families.

They've driven a surge in the sales of high-end homes that has jumbo lending accounting for about one-fifth of all new mortgages, up from about 5 percent of the market in 2009.

The nation's largest banks, including J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, are vying for that business by not only lowering rates but by reducing the minimum credit score and down payment required for million-dollar loans.

Last year, for example, J.P. Morgan, announced it was lowing the minimum acceptable FICO score from 740 to 680 and accepting down payments of as little as 15 percent on homes up to $3 million.

Q: What kind of credit scores do I need to qualify for a home loan these days?

A: Homebuyers with conventional loans had an average FICO credit score of 757 in November, according to Ellie Mae Inc., a California-based mortgage technology firm whose software is used by many lenders.

The average FICO score for homeowners who refinanced through a conventional loan was 727.

FHA loans clearly helped borrowers with too much debt and lower credit scores. The average FICO score for homebuyers was just 687 in November, while borrowers who refinanced with an FHA loan had an average score of just 648.