Confused by mortgages?

I am.... It has been several years since we thought about purchasing a home. The last time we looked it was pre 9/11 and rates were reasonable, but nowhere near as low as they are now. Back then we were told our rate would put our payment for our prefered home at about $1400 a month.

Now, with rates much lower than they were then (or supposedly lower) and my credit MUCH better I am still being told that a payment on a house the same price that we were looking at before would be about the same payment.

I am no financial novice having been doing financial planning for several years now. I am licensed to do mortgages myself, but I really just take an application and turn it over for someone else to do the "dirty" work. I am also licensed to do investments. So, I am far from a novice in the finacial arena but for the life of me cannot figure out how it can be that rates are about 3 points lower and I still "qualify" for the same payment.

One of these days I will get out the obnoxious packet or mortgage paperwork and see if I can figure out what weird math is being used to end up at the same payment. I am sure there are new ways the lenders are making even more money on people.