New American Funding Mortgage Review 2024

Good for: first-time home buyers, military members and self-employed or underrepresented borrowers.
Barbara MarquandPhil Metzger
By
and
Last updated on January 4, 2024
Edited by
✅ Fact checked and reviewed
Johanna Arnone
Edited by
✅ Fact checked and reviewed

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Our Take

4.0

Home loans overall
NerdWallet rating
The Nerdy headline:

New American Funding offers a large menu of loan products, including government-backed mortgages, ITIN loans and construction loans. But its mortgage origination fees tend to be on the high side, and you'll need to provide contact information to get a personalized mortgage rate according to your credit score and other factors.

Jump to:Full Review
New American Funding
New American Funding: NMLS#6606

Great for: first-time home buyers | customer service
Min. credit score
580
Min. down payment
3%
Loan types and products
Purchase, Refinance, Home Equity, Reverse, Jumbo, Fixed, Adjustable, FHA, VA, USDA
at New American Funding

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • Offers a wide variety of purchase and refinance mortgages with an emphasis on helping underserved communities.
  • Its home equity line of credit can be used for an owner-occupied or a second home.
  • Has a program to enable buyers to make cash offers.

Cons

  • Mortgage origination fees tend to be on the high end.
  • Personalized mortgage rates are not available on the website without providing contact information.
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Full Review

New American Funding's mortgage loan options

  • 5 of 5 stars

New American Funding offers a wide variety of purchase and refinance mortgages with an emphasis on helping underserved communities overcome barriers to get home loans. The company has specific initiatives and lending goals to help Hispanic and Black customers and military service members achieve homeownership.

Finding loan options on New American Funding's website is straightforward. You can see some choices on the home page, and a full menu is just a click away.

The lender offers fixed- and adjustable-rate loans, government-backed FHA, USDA and VA mortgages, and conventional, jumbo and reverse mortgages.

On top of that are some choices you won't find at every lender, including interest-only loans, construction loans and mortgages geared toward self-employed borrowers.

In addition, New American Funding offers a mortgage that gives borrowers the flexibility of setting their repayment term to anywhere from eight to 30 years. And it works with an affiliated real estate company to enable home buyers to make cash offers.

Video preview image

New American Funding HELOC

New American Funding offers home equity loans and a home equity line of credit (HELOC). These second mortgages are one way for homeowners to access existing home equity without refinancing or selling their home. Funds obtained with a second mortgage can be used for expenses such as home improvements, education costs or debt consolidation.

New American's home equity loans are available with terms of 20, 25 or 30 years.

New American Funding offers HELOCs for owner-occupied and second homes, with a draw period of 10 years and repayment periods of 10, 20 or 30 years.

What it's like to apply for a New American Funding mortgage

  • 3.5 of 5 stars

You can start your loan application in person, by phone, online or through the highly rated app. You can upload and electronically sign documents once you start an application.

"Apply Now" buttons are sprinkled throughout the website. On the home page are selections to "Buy a House" or "Refinance." From there you're taken through a series of questions, including the type of property you want to buy, estimated home cost, down payment, whether you're employed and estimated credit score.

example of online application question about purchase price
example of online application question about purchase price

After answering those questions, you're asked to enter your name to go any further.

Example of online mortgage application; enter your name
Example of online mortgage application; enter your name

If you want to start by talking to a human being, there's a phone number on the home page. On the day we called, someone answered quickly and transferred us to a loan officer to address our basic mortgage queries. The loan officer answered our questions, and the call took about six minutes, including the time we were on hold.

Branches are listed on a page in the website's "About Us" section. You can click on a state and see all the branches there. Clicking on a branch will take you to a page with a map to the office, the address and phone number, and a link to a form for a loan officer to contact you.

There was no online chat feature on the website when we looked.

A lot of information is available on the website, and it may be a little overwhelming to navigate at first. Clicking on the "Knowledge Center" in the menu on the home page takes you to a list of blog articles about homebuying. You can browse categories, such as mortgage news and personal finance, or choose "Trending" articles, such as "Home Buying FAQs." Links to a variety of resources can also be found at the bottom of the home page, including mortgage calculators and a mortgage glossary.

New American Funding's mortgage rates and fees

  • 2 of 5 stars

  • New American Funding earns 2 of 5 stars for average origination fee.

  • New American Funding earns 2 of 5 stars for average mortgage interest rates.

NerdWallet analyzes federal data to compare mortgage lenders’ origination fees and offered mortgage rates. We measure annual averages across all loan types, as reported by the lenders. New American Funding's rates and fees are on the higher side compared with other lenders. Loans considered higher risk often have higher interest rates and fees.

Borrowers should consider the balance between lender fees and mortgage rates. While it's not always the case, paying upfront fees can lower your mortgage interest rate. Some lenders will charge higher upfront fees to lower their advertised interest rate and make it more attractive. Some lenders just charge higher upfront fees.

New American Funding's mortgage rate transparency

  • 4 of 5 stars

If you’re looking for information on interest rates, select "Mortgage Rates" from the menu and you'll see rates and APRs for four popular loans.

Drilling down on "View Disclosures" shows you the fine print.

On the day we looked, the disclosures showed that New American Funding was including three discount points for each of the loans and considering an example borrower putting down 40% on a conventional loan to sweeten its advertised fixed mortgage rates. It's a good idea to look for clues like these when shopping rates online so that you won't be disappointed when you're quoted a higher rate.

What borrowers say about New American Funding mortgages

NerdWallet’s lender star ratings assess objective qualities, including rates, fees and loan offerings. To assess borrowers’ subjective experiences with lenders, NerdWallet has gathered customer satisfaction ratings from J.D. Power and Zillow.

  • New American Funding receives a score of 713 out of 1,000 in J.D. Power’s 2023 U.S. Mortgage Origination Satisfaction Study. The industry average for origination is 730. (Mortgage origination covers the initial application through closing day.) 

  • New American Funding receives 650 out of 1,000 in J.D. Power’s 2023 U.S. Mortgage Servicer Satisfaction Study. The industry average for servicing is 601. (A mortgage servicer handles loan payments.)

  • New American Funding receives a customer rating of 4.91 out of 5 on Zillow, as of the date of publication. The score reflects nearly 8,950 customer reviews.

Alternatives to a home loan from New American Funding

Here are some comparable lenders we review that borrowers can consider.

Alterra Home Loans focuses on underserved borrowers, and Carrington Mortgage Services offers multiple low-down-payment options, including FHA loans.

Explore mortgages today and get started on your homeownership goals

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John Buzbee contributed to this review.

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at New American Funding

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Methodology

NerdWallet’s overall ratings for mortgage lenders are evaluated based on four major categories: variety of loan types (purchase, refinance, fixed and adjustable, for example), ease of application, rates and fees and rate transparency. Among the factors we consider when scoring these categories are options to apply for and track loans online, the level of detail about mortgage rates on lender websites and our analysis of the rates and fees lenders reported in the latest available Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data. These scores generate ratings from 1 star (poor) to 5 stars (excellent).

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