Mortgages help you in realizing your dreams (of owning a home) much earlier in your life. Thats why mortgages are so popular. If you have ever entered into a mortgage agreement or even if you have participated in a mortgage related discussion, you would already know what a mortgage rate is. However, if you havent ever participated in mortgage related discussion or if you are not familiar with the concept of mortgage rate, this article should help you in understanding this concept in a better way. All discussions on mortgages start with talks about mortgage rate. So if you were looking to mortgage a house, the first thing you would enquire about will be the mortgage rate. Mortgage rate, in fact, is the most important thing that governs all mortgage agreements. Mortgage rate is what you use to differentiate one mortgage offer from the other or one mortgage lender from the other. So what is this mortgage rate? Mortgage rate is the interest rate that the mortgage lenders charge on the money that they lend to you as a mortgage loan. You are required to return the mortgage loan amount to the mortgage lender over a period of time in the form of monthly mortgage payments. However, no one would lend any money for free i.e. without them earning something from it. For mortgage lenders, the earning/profit is realized in the form of the interest they charge on the mortgage loan amount. This interest is calculated on the basis of an interest rate which is also called the mortgage rate. So mortgage rate is used to determine your total monthly mortgage payments. Unless, its an interest only mortgage (where-in you pay only the interest for the first few years), your monthly mortgage payments will consist of both principal payment and interest payment. In the first few years, the interest portion is much larger than the principal portion. Broadly, there are 2 types of mortgage rates i.e. fixed mortgage rate and adjustable mortgage rate. Fixed mortgage rate is the mortgage rate that remains constant over a period of time whereas the adjustable mortgage rate varies over a period of time (based on the fluctuations in a pre-selected financial index like treasury security). Various combinations of these two types of mortgage rates are used to form different mortgage offers. Mortgage rate is really the most important thing (or maybe the sole thing) to consider when going for a home mortgage loan.