The check digits enable the sending bank (or its customer) to perform a sanity check of the routing destination and account number from a single string of data at the time of data entry.
Generally, interest rates on FHA-backed mortgages are competitive with conventional mortgages. A quick scan of interest rates for 2012 reveals that FHA mortgages feature rates of about 3.33 percent. The FHA states that the average interest rate for a 30-year fixed loan on a single-family home is about 4.06 percent.
FHA Mortgage Rates For Condos. FHA loans are an important part of today's housing market -- both for single-family homes and for condos. FHA loans are the cheapest, most-accessible low-downpayment home loan for many U.S. borrowers and FHA mortgages account for more than 1-in-5 closed loans monthly.