The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage held at 7.40% in the week ended October 15, unchanged from the prior week and well above the 6.27% average a year earlier, Freddie Mac said.
By the numbers: The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 7.40% as of October 15, unchanged from last week. A year ago at this time the 30-year averaged 6.27%.
- The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.71%, down from 6.73% a week earlier. A year ago the 15-year averaged 5.52%.
The big picture: Freddie Mac’s own weekly series since 1971 shows the last reading at or above 7.40% came on November 16, 2023, at 7.44%. Every week in 2024 and 2025 printed lower than today’s figure.
Zoom in: The climb is recent. The 30-year sat at 6.76% on September 10, then moved to 6.95%, 7.03%, 7.28% and 7.40% over the four weeks that followed.
- This year’s low was 5.98% on February 26, the only stretch of 2026 with a 30-year average under 6%.
Between the lines: The survey is built from rates on thousands of purchase applications submitted to Freddie Mac by credit unions, commercial banks and mortgage lenders, limited to conventional single-family originations inside the conforming loan limits set by FHFA.
What's next: Each figure averages rates offered from 12:00 a.m. the prior Thursday through 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, and publishes Thursdays at noon ET, so this reading already covers the first half of October.
Why it matters: The 30-year rate sets the monthly payment on most US home loans. Because the published number is an average and individual offers scatter around it, a buyer shopping this week should pull quotes from several lenders inside the same week.
