Today’s Syracuse Mortgage Rates
Mortgage rates as of 8/28/2026
Mortgage rates as of 8/28/2026
Syracuse sits in west Davis County between Hill Air Force Base and the Great Salt Lake shoreline, and it is one of the few Utah markets where two complicated loan situations show up in the same file: a VA borrower buying a house that does not exist yet. Either alone is routine. Together they create problems that neither a standard VA purchase nor a standard new-construction purchase runs into.
The reasons are structural. A VA loan imposes requirements on the builder and the property, not just on you. A build runs six to twelve months, during which your rate lock, your entitlement and your orders each run on their own clock and none of them coordinates. And the incentive the builder is dangling to move you to their lender collides with VA rules about what a veteran may pay and what a seller may contribute. None of that is in the sales office script, and all of it is cheaper to solve before you sign the builder’s contract.
On a resale, VA underwrites you and the house. On a new build it also underwrites the builder, and that is where Syracuse VA deals most often fall apart: the buyer picks a lot, signs, and then learns the builder has no VA registration and no interest in getting one on your timeline.
For a home that is proposed, under construction, or newly completed and never occupied, VA requires the builder to be registered and to hold a VA builder identification number. Obtaining one is not difficult, an application and certifications to the VA regional loan center, but it takes time a production builder mid-quarter will not prioritize. National builders working Davis County usually have one already, because Hill makes VA a real share of their buyers. Small regional and custom builders frequently do not. Ask one question before you write an offer: what is your VA builder ID number? If the agent does not know what you mean, you have your answer in week one instead of week twenty.
A VA appraisal is ordered through VA’s system, assigned to a VA-approved appraiser, and produces a Notice of Value, the document setting the value VA will lend against and listing conditions that must be cleared before closing. On a build it is normally completed subject to completion per plans and specifications, valued from the floor plan, elevation, option list and lot, with a final inspection after the certificate of occupancy confirming the home was built as specified. Two consequences: the NOV can carry conditions the builder was never told about, and a final inspection requested late is one of the most common reasons a new-construction closing slips.
VA Minimum Property Requirements exist to confirm the home is safe, structurally sound and sanitary. A brand-new house satisfies most of them by being built to current code, but not all. What still catches west Davis builds: mechanical systems not yet operational at inspection, incomplete grading and drainage away from the foundation, missing handrails or guardrails, unfinished exterior surfaces, and access that is not yet permanent. A house that is 95% done does not pass; it gets re-inspected. The fix is sequencing. We schedule the final inspection against the superintendent’s date, not the sales office’s. More on program mechanics on our VA loan page.
This requirement is specific to new construction on a VA loan, and almost nobody hears about it until it stops the file. VA wants assurance that defects found after you move in are someone’s responsibility, and it accepts that in two forms.
The standard path is a one-year builder’s warranty signed by the builder on VA’s warranty form, covering defects in materials and workmanship and non-compliance with the approved plans and specifications, running one year from completion or occupancy. Most production builders issue their own limited warranty anyway, but the VA form is a separate document, and a builder unfamiliar with VA will not have it in the closing packet unless someone asks. That someone is your loan officer.
The one-year warranty alone is generally acceptable when the construction was inspected during the build by VA, by HUD, or by a local building authority whose inspections VA accepts. Where that inspection record does not exist, VA looks instead for a ten-year insured protection plan from a warranty provider it accepts: a real insurance product covering major structural defects, purchased by the builder, and not something arranged retroactively the week of closing. In Syracuse most homes are built under city or county inspection, so the one-year route is normal. The problem case is the owner-builder or the small builder working outside that chain.
Plainly: if the builder will not sign the VA warranty and there is no acceptable ten-year plan, the VA loan does not close on that property. Your options are to negotiate the warranty into the contract as a condition (easy before signing, nearly impossible in month eight), to place an accepted third-party structural warranty if the builder will cooperate with enrollment, or to change programs, conventional and FHA have their own new-construction documentation but do not impose this requirement in the same form. Switching late usually costs you the down payment advantage that made VA attractive, which is exactly why this belongs in the contract negotiation. Building on your own lot is a different animal: see our one-time close construction loan, which funds the build and converts to permanent financing without a second closing.
The timing problem on a VA build is that three independent countdowns run at once and none of them knows about the others.
Six to twelve months is the honest range on a Syracuse subdivision home, and delivery dates move later far more often than earlier: permitting, trades, a utility tie-in, a winter that stops concrete. Plan against the superintendent’s estimate plus a buffer, never the contract date.
A 30- or 45-day lock is meaningless across a nine-month build. What you need is an extended lock, available on VA much as on conventional, typically from about 90 days out to a year. You pay for the time as a rate adjustment or as points collected up front, because the lender carries your interest-rate risk the whole way; long terms often require a deposit credited back at closing and forfeited if you walk.
If the lock expires at drywall you do not get your old rate back. You re-lock at that day’s market, and most lenders apply worst-case pricing on a re-lock, the higher of your original rate and current market. On a $500,000 loan a half-point difference is roughly $150 a month and around $54,000 over thirty years. Extension fees, priced per day or in blocks, are cheap once and expensive as a habit. That is the whole argument for buying more lock term than you think you need.
The counter-argument to a long lock is that rates might fall while you sit at the top. A float-down provision answers it: a one-time right, built into many extended lock programs, to re-lock lower if the market improves past a defined threshold before closing. The rules matter: a minimum improvement, an exercise window usually tied to days before closing, and generally one use. Not every investor offers one on VA product. As a broker we can compare lock programs across lenders rather than take what one retail shop happens to have, which on a long build outweighs a small difference in base rate.
Your Certificate of Eligibility does not expire mid-build, but your usable entitlement can change under you. If you still own a home financed with a VA loan, common for a member who bought at a prior duty station, part of your entitlement stays tied up until that loan is paid off or entitlement is restored. A second VA loan on partial entitlement is possible, and that is where county loan limits actually re-enter the math. If your plan is to sell the prior home during the build, say so at the start: the order in which the two transactions close changes what you qualify for here.
Hill Air Force Base supports a workforce of roughly 26,900, and the composition matters: about 5,600 active duty against more than 20,000 government civilians and contractors, largely because of the Ogden Air Logistics Complex. Most VA buyers in Syracuse are therefore long-tenure, non-PCS buyers. For the active-duty minority, orders arriving in month seven of a build are a compliance question, not just an inconvenience.
VA is an owner-occupancy program, and at closing you certify your intent to occupy. That is a good-faith statement of intent at the moment you sign it, if circumstances genuinely change afterward you have not committed fraud, but it is signed under penalty and lenders treat it seriously. The standard is intent to occupy within a reasonable time, which VA generally treats as about 60 days after closing. New construction is the recognized exception: VA permits a later occupancy date certain, commonly out to roughly twelve months, where you certify a specific date and the delay has a sound reason. That accommodation is what makes a VA build possible at all, and it is documented in the file rather than assumed.
For an active-duty member who cannot personally occupy because of deployment or a duty assignment elsewhere, occupancy by the spouse generally satisfies the requirement. That single provision resolves most orders-mid-build situations we see: the member is reassigned, the family completes the move, the loan closes and performs normally. A dependent child’s occupancy alone does not satisfy it, though narrow provisions exist involving an attorney-in-fact for a deployed member.
Call the day the orders arrive, not the week of closing. Nearly every one of these outcomes improves with time to restructure. 801-576-9336.
The VA funding fee is the one-time charge that lets VA run without mortgage insurance. It can be financed into the loan, which is why buyers ignore it, and on a long build it deserves a second look, because it is one of the few costs you can still change late by adjusting your down payment.
| Down payment | First use | Subsequent use |
|---|---|---|
| Less than 5% | 2.15% | 3.30% |
| 5% to 9.99% | 1.50% | 1.50% |
| 10% or more | 1.25% | 1.25% |
VA purchase funding fee percentages, unchanged since April 7, 2023, applied to the loan amount.
The middle row is the most valuable line on this page for a repeat VA borrower. The first-use versus subsequent-use penalty exists only below 5% down. At 5% the fee is 1.50% whether this is your first VA loan or your fourth. A veteran who has used the benefit before and puts nothing down pays 3.30%; the same veteran at 5% down pays 1.50%. On a $600,000 purchase that is roughly $19,800 against $8,550: about $11,250 of difference for a $30,000 down payment, and the down payment is equity rather than a fee.
The trade does not always win. If that $30,000 is your entire reserve and the design center is about to consume it, keeping cash is the better call. But it should be a decision, and most buyers never see the comparison. On a build you usually have months between contract and closing to accumulate the difference, which is why this actually gets used in Syracuse.
The funding fee is waived entirely for veterans receiving VA compensation for a service-connected disability, and for certain other categories including surviving spouses receiving Dependency and Indemnity Compensation. If you have a rating, or a claim pending that may be approved before closing, tell us: on a $600,000 loan the waiver is worth over $12,000 at the subsequent-use rate, and a refund may be available where the rating is granted after closing.
Every production builder in west Davis offers something for financing through their affiliated lender: a closing-cost credit, a buydown, design-center dollars. On a conventional loan that is straightforward arithmetic. On a VA loan there is a second layer, and the headline number can be worth less than it looks.
A builder cannot require you to use its affiliated lender as a condition of selling you the home. Under RESPA’s affiliated business arrangement rules the relationship must be disclosed and its use cannot be mandatory. What a builder can do is condition an incentive on using the affiliate. The choice is genuinely yours; the only question is whether the incentive beats the difference in rate and fees.
VA limits what a veteran is allowed to pay. Certain lender charges are unallowable to the borrower, and a lender that itemizes is generally held to a flat charge of no more than one percent of the loan amount in lieu of those itemized costs. Practically, that compresses what any VA lender can charge you, so a builder’s “we will cover your closing costs” pitch is partly covering costs you could never have been billed. Separately, VA caps seller concessions at 4% of the established value when the concession takes forms such as paying your prepaid taxes and insurance, funding a temporary buydown escrow, paying off your other debt, or gifting personal property. Ordinary contributions toward customary loan costs and discount points are treated differently from that 4% bucket, but the cap is real and a large incentive can run into it.
Get a full Loan Estimate from the builder’s lender with the incentive applied and one from us on the same loan amount, the same product, and critically the same lock term, a 60-day quote against a 270-day extended lock is not a comparison. Then weigh the note rate, total lender charges, funding fee treatment, how much of the incentive is actually applicable under the VA limits, and the payment difference times how long you will really hold the loan. Sometimes the builder’s package wins and we say so. Often the credit sits on a rate a quarter to a half point above market and the free money costs more than it pays. Bring us their estimate and we will mark it up line by line at no charge. Our fees run about 25% below many competitors with no processing or junk fees, which narrows the gap an incentive has to close.
Buyers who have only done a resale expect the loan to happen in the last month. On a VA build the work is front-loaded and back-loaded with a long quiet middle. Knowing the shape prevents most of the panic.
| Stage | What happens | What goes wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Before contract | Confirm the builder’s VA ID and willingness to sign the VA warranty; pull your Certificate of Eligibility and confirm available entitlement; negotiate a military clause | Signing first, then finding no VA builder ID |
| Contract to lock | Full pre-approval; choose a lock term against the superintendent’s realistic date plus buffer; confirm any float-down | Locking 45 days because the sales office said “spring” |
| Early build | VA appraisal ordered subject to completion; Notice of Value issued with conditions | NOV conditions the builder never heard about |
| Mid build | Quiet period. Keep credit and employment stable; report any change in orders, income or entitlement immediately | Financing a truck or opening a card at the design center |
| Completion | Certificate of occupancy; final inspection confirming the build matches plans; builder signs the one-year warranty | Requesting the final inspection late |
| Closing | Updated documentation, occupancy certification, funding fee assessed or waived, funding | A lock expiring days before the CO issues |
We can close a clean file in three weeks once the house is done, and whether that happens is decided almost entirely in the first two rows of that table. Start with a real pre-approval, apply here or call 801-576-9336.
Buyers shop Syracuse against the south end of Salt Lake County, and the county line is worth real money on the financing side even where house prices look similar.
| Program figure | Syracuse (Davis County) | Salt Lake County | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| FHA limit, one unit | $744,050 (Ogden MSA) | $637,100 | +$106,950 |
| Conforming limit, one unit | $832,750 | $832,750 | n/a |
| Utah Housing income cap, 1-2 person | $141,400 | $126,100 | +$15,300 |
| Utah Housing income cap, 3+ person | $164,600 | $145,000 | +$19,600 |
| Utah Housing max purchase price | $778,500 | $666,600 | +$111,900 |
| 2025 average total property tax rate | 1.0108% | 1.0504% | −0.0396 pts |
2026 FHA limits per HUD Mortgagee Letter 2025-23. Utah Housing FirstHome limits as currently published, verify at application. Tax rates are 2025 county averages from the Utah State Tax Commission; individual tax areas vary.
HUD sets FHA limits by metropolitan area, and the Ogden MSA, Davis, Weber and Morgan counties, is pulled up by Morgan’s median. That is the entire reason a Syracuse buyer has $106,950 more FHA room than a buyer in Sandy. On the Utah Housing side, a household earning $135,000 is over the FirstHome ceiling in Salt Lake County and comfortably under it here. Same income, same job, different county. See our FHA page and Utah Housing page; our Ogden page works the MSA limit story at length.
Most Syracuse buyers are not using VA. Hill’s workforce is overwhelmingly civilian, and plenty of the families filling these subdivisions have no connection to the base at all. The generic new-construction mechanics apply here exactly as they do anywhere on the Wasatch Front: conventional financing at 3% down for a qualifying first-time buyer or 5% down more broadly, both with cancellable mortgage insurance and both good to $832,750; an appraisal completed subject to completion per plans and specifications with a required final inspection; and HOA review, light for a detached home in a planned unit development and much heavier for attached product.
Rather than repeat it, our South Jordan page covers new-construction financing in full: extended locks, builder incentives, 2-1 versus permanent buydowns, master-association underwriting, appraisal gaps and public infrastructure district assessments. All of it applies in Syracuse. Under the Davis County income caps, also look at Freddie Mac Home Possible and Utah Housing assistance before assuming 5% down is your floor.
Syracuse runs west toward the Great Salt Lake, and the newer subdivisions on that side sit on ground flatter, lower and wetter than the bench communities east of the freeway. Add the West Davis Corridor reshaping drainage across the west side of the county and buyers reasonably ask what it means for the loan.
Every federally related mortgage includes a flood zone determination: a small third-party fee on your Loan Estimate, ordered as a matter of course, identifying whether the structure sits within a FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area. You do not request it and you cannot skip it. Most of Syracuse is not mapped high-risk, but parcels nearer the shoreline and drainage corridors can be, and the determination is made at the structure level, not by neighborhood reputation.
If the structure is in a Special Flood Hazard Area and the loan is federally backed, flood insurance is mandatory, VA, FHA and essentially every conventional loan sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. It is statutory, not a lender preference, and there is no waiving it. Coverage must be in force at closing and is escrowed alongside taxes and hazard insurance on most loan types.
The part that surprises people: the premium changes what you qualify for. Flood insurance is part of the housing payment for debt-to-income, so a policy running a few hundred dollars a month cuts your maximum loan amount by a five-figure sum. Get a quote early. On a build you have the unusual luxury of months, which matters because if the structure sits above the base flood elevation a surveyor’s elevation certificate can materially cut the premium, and a Letter of Map Amendment through FEMA can sometimes remove the structure from the zone entirely. Both take time you have during construction and do not have in a 30-day resale.
A high water table is a construction and appraisal issue rather than an insurance one. On a new build the protections live in the builder’s engineering, foundation drains, sump provisions, lot grading, and in the VA Minimum Property Requirement that the site drain away from the foundation. On a resale in an older west-side subdivision, evidence of water intrusion in a basement generates appraisal conditions on any loan and will stop an FHA or VA loan until resolved. Ask the sales office about the drainage design and keep the answer with your file.
We finance homes throughout Syracuse and the surrounding west Davis communities: Bluff Ridge, Cook Farms, Heritage, Syracuse Cove, Jensen Farms, the Antelope Drive corridor and the newer subdivisions running west from it, the neighborhoods along 2000 West and 3000 West, the Antelope Island causeway area, and the border areas shared with West Point, Clearfield, Layton and Kaysville.
The loan questions shift as you move across the city. Newer subdivisions west toward the shoreline bring builder registration, extended locks and flood determination. Established streets near Antelope Drive and the Clearfield and Layton borders behave like an ordinary resale market, where the questions are appraisal condition and program choice. Larger-lot properties toward the Kaysville border push toward and occasionally past the $832,750 conforming ceiling into jumbo underwriting. Whatever the address, a pre-approval should be built on the actual tax area and the actual HOA schedule for that parcel, not a county average.
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Yes, and it is common near Hill Air Force Base, but the builder has to cooperate. VA requires a registered builder holding a VA builder identification number, a VA appraisal producing a Notice of Value, compliance with VA Minimum Property Requirements, and normally a one-year builder warranty on VA’s form. Ask for the builder’s VA ID before you sign anything. If you are building on your own lot rather than buying from a production builder, a one-time close construction loan is the better structure.
Not usually. The standard is a one-year builder warranty covering defects in materials and workmanship and non-compliance with the approved plans, signed on VA’s form. A ten-year insured structural protection plan is what VA looks for when the build was not inspected by VA, HUD or an acceptable local building authority. Most Syracuse homes are city or county inspected. If the builder provides neither, the VA loan cannot close on that property.
It depends on who occupies the home. VA requires you to certify intent to occupy, generally within about 60 days of closing, with new construction allowed a later date certain commonly out to twelve months. Spouse occupancy ordinarily satisfies the requirement when duty prevents yours. Otherwise the options are closing and occupying on the certified date if the timing still works, terminating under a military clause if your builder contract has one, or moving to conventional financing at a different down payment. Call us the day orders arrive.
On a purchase it is 2.15% of the loan amount for first use and 3.30% for subsequent use below 5% down, 1.50% either way at 5% to 9.99%, and 1.25% at 10% or more. The first-use penalty exists only below 5% down, so a repeat borrower putting 5% down cuts the fee from 3.30% to 1.50%, about $11,250 on a $600,000 purchase. The fee is waived entirely for veterans receiving VA compensation for a service-connected disability.
Extended locks on VA loans run from about 90 days out to a year. You pay for the time as a rate adjustment or points up front, and long terms often require a deposit credited back at closing. Lock to the superintendent’s realistic completion date plus a buffer, not the contract date. An expired lock is re-locked at current market, usually under worst-case pricing, meaning the higher of your original rate and the market that day. Ask whether the program includes a one-time float-down.
A builder cannot legally require you to use its affiliated lender, but it can condition an incentive on using them. On a VA loan there is a further wrinkle: VA limits which closing costs a veteran may pay and caps certain seller concessions at 4% of value, so part of a headline credit may cover charges you could never have been billed. Compare full Loan Estimates on the same loan amount, product and lock term, and we will review theirs line by line at no cost.
Only if the structure sits inside a FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area. Every mortgage includes a flood zone determination as a standard third-party service, and a structure in a high-risk zone must carry flood insurance on any federally backed loan, including VA, FHA and agency conventional. Most of Syracuse is not mapped high-risk, but parcels nearer the shoreline and drainage corridors can be. The premium counts in debt-to-income and changes what you qualify for.
Syracuse is in Davis County. The 2026 conforming limit is $832,750 on a one-unit property and the FHA limit is $744,050 under the Ogden MSA, which is $106,950 above Salt Lake County’s $637,100. VA has no loan limit with full entitlement. Utah Housing FirstHome allows $141,400 of income for a one-to-two-person household and $164,600 for three or more, with a $778,500 maximum purchase price. There is no USDA eligibility in Syracuse.
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