The 30-year average is 7.28% this week. It was 6.34% a year ago. On the county median that is about $4,356 a year more for the same house at the same price, and I am not going to pretend that is nothing.
There is one legal way around it, and most buyers have never heard of it. You do not get a new loan at all. You take over the one the seller already has, at the rate they got.
It is called an assumption. It is real, it is not a loophole, and it does not work on most houses. Here is the honest version.
Which loans can be taken over
Only government-backed ones. That is the whole rule, and it decides everything else.
| Loan type | Assumable? | What it takes |
|---|---|---|
| FHA | Yes | Lender approval, and you qualify under current FHA guidelines |
| VA | Yes | Lender and VA approval. You do not have to be a veteran |
| USDA | Yes | Lender and USDA approval, plus their income and property rules |
| Conventional | No | Due-on-sale clause. The balance gets paid off when the house sells |
So the first question on any house you love is not what it costs. It is what kind of loan is on it.
The catch nobody mentions
You assume the balance, not the price. The seller’s equity does not come along for the ride. You have to cover the difference between what they still owe and what you are paying them.
Here is what that actually looks like. These numbers are an illustration, not a specific house:
| A $650,000 house | Monthly | Cash in |
|---|---|---|
| New conventional loan, 20% down, at 7.28% | $3,558 | $130,000 |
| Assume a $350,000 FHA loan at 3.25%, cover the rest in cash | $1,523 | $300,000 |
| Assume it, 20% down, finance the rest of the gap as a second at 8% | $2,945 | $130,000 |
Look at the middle row and then look at the cash column. $1,523 a month is a wonderful number and almost nobody has $300,000 sitting there. That row is why people hear about assumptions and then never do one.
The third row is the real one. Same cash as a normal purchase, and the payment still lands about $613 a month under the conventional loan. That is $7,300 a year, on the same house, for doing the paperwork differently.
If it is a VA loan, read this part twice
You do not have to be a veteran to assume a VA loan. That part surprises people and it is true.
But the seller’s VA entitlement stays tied up in that loan unless the person assuming it is a veteran who substitutes their own. In plain terms: a seller who lets a non-veteran assume their VA loan may not be able to use their VA benefit on the house they buy next, possibly for years.
I have seen that detail surface late, and it is a miserable conversation to have at that point. If you are assuming a VA loan, it belongs in the first conversation, not the last one.
How you actually find one
They are almost never advertised. A few listings mention it in the remarks. Most do not, usually because nobody asked.
So you work backwards. Houses bought or refinanced between about 2020 and early 2022 are the ones carrying the low rates. Your agent asks the listing agent two questions: what kind of loan is on it, and would the seller consider an assumption. That is it. Most agents never ask, which is exactly why there is room here.
One timing warning. The servicer processes an assumption, not a local loan officer, and servicers are not built for speed. Plan on longer than a normal closing and write it into the contract. If a seller has to be out in three weeks, this is not the house.
Where this really matters
If you are renting and doing the math every January on whether this is the year, an assumption is the one structure that can put a payment in reach that a new loan cannot. It is also how people move up a step at a time: out of a mobile home into a condo, out of a condo into a house, each time keeping a payment they can actually carry.
And there are more candidates right now than there have been in years. There are 3,071 active listings in Snohomish County as of this week, against 424 in March 2024. Sellers are negotiating again. A seller sitting on a 3% FHA loan and ninety days of market time has a reason to listen.
What I would do first
Talk to a lender before you fall in love with a house, because an assumption has to be underwritten like any other loan and you want to know what you qualify for on both paths. Then send me the houses you like. I will find out what loan is on each one, which is a phone call, and we will know in a day whether there is anything there.
And when you do find one, the house is usually older, because the low-rate years skew that way. That is the part I am not worried about. My husband Brien is a general contractor, and his company SMART Building Services is the other half of how we work. He will walk it with you and tell you what the roof and the kitchen actually cost before you write the offer, not after.
This is general information from a real estate broker, not lending advice, and nothing here is an offer of credit. Assumption rules are set by FHA, the VA, USDA and the loan servicer, and they change. Your lender and the servicer decide what is possible on a specific loan. Rate figures are Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey for the week of October 1, 2026. The payment examples above are illustrations only and are not a specific property or a quote.
If this is your first house, read the down payment assistance piece next. There is help in this state that most people never hear about, and it stacks with everything above.