Where the average US 30 year fixed mortgage rate stands versus its history
The average US 30 year fixed mortgage rate was 7.40% on Oct 15, 2026, in the upper third of its 12 month range. Updated when Freddie Mac (Primary Mortgage Market Survey) publishes a new reading.
Snapshot
The average US 30 year fixed mortgage rate was 7.40% on Oct 15, 2026, in the upper third of its 12 month range. The highest reading in the data is 18.63% on Oct 9, 1981 and the lowest is 2.65% on Jan 7, 2021; the data starts on Apr 2, 1971.
- Independent Research
What We Know
- Latest reading: 7.40% on Oct 15, 2026.
- Previous reading: 7.40% on Oct 8, 2026, so the latest is unchanged.
- One year earlier: 6.30% on Oct 9, 2025; up 110 basis points since.
- 12 month high: 7.40% on Oct 15, 2026. 12 month low: 5.98% on Feb 26, 2026.
- 5 year high: 7.79% on Oct 26, 2023. 5 year low: 2.98% on Nov 10, 2021.
- Highest since: the latest reading is the highest since Oct 8, 2026, the last time the series was at or above this level.
- Lowest since: the latest reading is the lowest since Oct 8, 2026, the last time the series was at or below this level.
- Highest in data back to Apr 2, 1971: 18.63% on Oct 9, 1981. Lowest: 2.65% on Jan 7, 2021.
Octans View
At 7.40%, the average US 30 year fixed mortgage rate is at its 12 month high. Over the past year it is up 110 basis points.
Bear Case · Room for Disagreement
Limits. This page shows weekly readings, not intraday levels; a market can trade above or below them during a session. Freddie Mac (Primary Mortgage Market Survey) data reach FRED with a lag of about one week (it is published each Thursday), so the latest reading can trail the market. Records refer only to the history this source carries; older data from other sources may show higher or lower levels. Nothing here is a forecast.
Method and source. Octans Research computes every figure on this page from the full published history of Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED) series MORTGAGE30US. "Highest since" is the last earlier date when the series was at or above the latest reading. The page is regenerated by a fixed template when a new reading is published; no model wrote it.
Chart
Sources
- [1]Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED) — US 30 year mortgage rate, full weekly history (series MORTGAGE30US)
These are the sources this piece was drafted from. How we verify. Found an error? Tell us and we correct it in public.
7.40%
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A weekly reading from Freddie Mac (Primary Mortgage Market Survey), compared with the full history of the series.