RateReady
Role: Solo Developer • Platforms: iOS
About
A passive home affordability tracker that shows your buying power on your Home Screen, automatically updated as mortgage rates change.
Tech Stack
What can I afford at today’s rate?
RateReady is a passive home affordability tracker for prospective home buyers who want to know their buying power without the mental overhead of monitoring mortgage rates.
The Problem
Mortgage interest rates change constantly, and those changes can significantly impact how much house you can afford—often by tens of thousands of dollars. But staying on top of rate movements and recalculating your budget is tedious and easy to forget. Most people only check when they’re actively house hunting, missing windows of opportunity when rates dip.
The Solution
RateReady does the work for you. Set up your financial profile once—income, debts, down payment, and location—and the app continuously calculates your maximum affordable home price based on current market rates. The answer lives on your iPhone’s Home Screen as a widget, so you can see your buying power at a glance without opening an app or doing any math.
Key Features
Set it and forget it — Enter your financial details once. RateReady handles the rest.
Home Screen widget — Your buying power is always visible—a large “max home price” number with the current rate, updated daily.
Automatic recalculation — When rates change, your numbers update automatically.
Smart notifications — Get alerted when your buying power shifts significantly (e.g., ±$25k), so you know when market conditions are meaningfully better or worse.
What-If scenarios — Explore how changes to your down payment, target DTI, or a custom interest rate would affect what you can afford.
Full payment breakdown — See how your monthly payment splits across principal & interest, taxes, insurance, PMI, and HOA.
Who It’s For
Anyone considering a home purchase who wants to stay passively informed about their buying power. Whether you’re saving for a down payment, waiting for rates to drop, or just curious—RateReady keeps you in the loop without requiring any ongoing effort.
Support
Contact Support
If you’re experiencing issues, have feedback, or want to request a feature, please reach out:
Email: gregmcinnescontact@gmail.com
When contacting support, please include:
- Your device model (e.g., iPhone 15 Pro)
- iOS version (found in Settings > General > About)
- A description of the issue or feedback
- Screenshots if applicable
I typically respond within 1-2 business days.
Privacy Policy
Last Updated: December 2024
Overview
RateReady is designed with your privacy in mind. Your financial information stays on your device and is never collected, stored on external servers, or shared with third parties.
Data Storage
All data is stored locally on your device. This includes:
- Your financial profile (income, debts, down payment, etc.)
- Location preferences
- App settings and preferences
- Widget configurations
This data never leaves your device and is not accessible to the developer or any third parties. If you delete the app, all locally stored data is permanently removed.
Network Requests
RateReady makes the following network requests to provide its core functionality:
1. FRED API (Federal Reserve Economic Data)
- Purpose: To fetch current mortgage interest rates
- Data sent: None of your personal information is transmitted
- Data received: Current 30-year fixed mortgage rate data
- Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
- Frequency: Daily updates
2. Zillow & Redfin (Web Scraping)
- Purpose: To retrieve estimated home valuations for affordability calculations
- Data sent: Addresses of homes entered in profile — no personal financial information
- Data received: Estimated home prices specified homes
- Note: This involves web scraping of publicly available data from Zillow and Redfin
- Frequency: Once daily or as prompted by user
Data We Do NOT Collect
- Personal identification information
- Financial account details
- Device identifiers or tracking data
- Usage analytics
- Crash reports containing personal information
Third-Party Services
RateReady does not integrate with any third-party analytics, advertising, or tracking services. The only external communications are the API/web requests described above, which are used solely to provide accurate rate and valuation data.
Children’s Privacy
RateReady is not directed at children under 13 and does not knowingly collect information from children.
Changes to This Policy
If this privacy policy is updated, the changes will be reflected on this page with an updated “Last Updated” date.
Contact
If you have questions about this privacy policy, please contact:
Email: gregmcinnescontact@gmail.com