Mortgage Rate History: 30-Year Fixed Rates by Year, 1971-2026 (Chart and Table)

Mortgage rates today: the 30-year fixed stands at 7.28%

The 30-year fixed mortgage rate averaged 7.28% in the week of October 1, 2026, according to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS). That is up 0.25 percentage points from 7.03% the week before and up from 6.34% a year earlier.

It is also the highest weekly reading since November 22, 2023, when the survey showed 7.29%. The 15-year fixed averaged 6.60% in the same week, up from 6.42%.

2026 started lower. The first reading of the year, on January 8, was 6.16%, and the 30-year rate bottomed at 5.98% on February 26. From March onward the trend was up. Rates crossed 6.5% in late May, reached 6.66% at the end of July and then rose for six straight weeks through the week of October 1. The jump from 6.76% on September 10 to 7.28% on October 1 added more than half a percentage point in three weeks.

Across all 39 weekly readings published so far this year, the 30-year fixed has averaged 6.43%. That puts 2026 slightly below 2023 (6.81%), 2024 (6.72%) and 2025 (6.60%) on an annual-average basis, even though the latest weekly reading is above all three of those annual averages.

Table: Latest weekly readings, Freddie Mac PMMS

Source: Freddie Mac, Primary Mortgage Market Survey, release of October 1, 2026; weekly archive at freddiemac.com/pmms/archive.

Freddie Mac publishes PMMS results every Thursday at 12 p.m. ET, or on Wednesday when a federal holiday falls on Thursday. Each reading is an average of rates on loan applications from the prior Thursday through Wednesday.

30-year fixed mortgage rates by year, 1971-2026

The average 30-year fixed rate has ranged from 2.96% (2021) to 16.64% (1981) on an annual basis since Freddie Mac began its survey in April 1971. The table below gives the annual average, the highest and lowest weekly reading in each year with its date, and the 15-year fixed average from 1991, when Freddie Mac added that product.

We calculated each annual figure ourselves as the simple average of every weekly reading dated in that calendar year. Freddie Mac does not publish an annual table in this format. For 2004 to 2007 the weekly archive was not retrievable in text form when we compiled this page, so those four years use the Federal Reserve's H.15 monthly series for the same Freddie Mac survey (marked with an asterisk). Our method section explains the difference.

Table: Average 30-year and 15-year fixed mortgage rates by year, with weekly highs and lows, 1971-2026

* 2004-2007: annual average is the mean of 12 monthly averages from the Federal Reserve H.15 release (series MORTG), which averages Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Highs and lows for those years are the highest and lowest monthly averages, so individual weeks ran higher and lower. The 2004 15-year figure is a weekly average.

Source: Paperless Pipeline analysis of Freddie Mac PMMS weekly data via FRED (MORTGAGE30US), FRED (MORTGAGE15US), Freddie Mac PMMS annual archives and Federal Reserve H.15 via FRED (MORTG). Data through October 1, 2026.

A few patterns stand out once every year sits in one place:

• Twelve straight years averaged 10% or more, from 1979 through 1990.
• Eight years averaged below 4%: 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2021. Every one of them came after the 2008 financial crisis.
• The widest range inside a single year was 1980, when the weekly rate swung 4.17 points between 12.18% (July 4) and 16.35% (April). 1982 (4.09 points) and 2022 (3.86 points) are next.
• 2022 went from 3.22% on January 6 to 7.08% on October 27, more than doubling inside ten months.

Mortgage rate history chart, 1971-2026

The 30-year fixed rate climbed for a decade, peaked in 1981, then fell for most of the next 40 years before turning sharply higher in 2022. The line chart shows the annual average for each year.

Read the chart in four phases.

From 1971 to 1981, rates rose from the 7% range to above 16%. Most of the increase came after 1978. The annual average was 9.64% in 1978, 11.20% in 1979, 13.74% in 1980 and 16.64% in 1981.

From 1982 to 2012, the trend was down, with interruptions. The 1990s averaged 8.12%, the 2000s 6.29%. By 2012 the annual average was down to 3.66%.

From 2012 to 2021, rates stayed unusually low. Every year in that stretch averaged below 4.6%, and 2021 set the record at 2.96%.

From 2022 to 2026, rates reset higher. The annual average more than doubled from 2.96% to 6.81% in two years and has stayed above 6.4% every year since.

Average mortgage rate by decade

The 1980s had the highest decade average at 12.70%, and the 2010s had the lowest at 4.09%. The 2020s so far average 5.42%, pulled down by the record lows of 2020 and 2021 and pulled up by every year since.

Table: Average 30-year fixed mortgage rate by decade

Decade averages are the simple mean of the annual averages in the annual table. Source: Paperless Pipeline analysis of Freddie Mac PMMS data via FRED and Federal Reserve H.15. Data through October 1, 2026.

One way to read the decade numbers: the 7.28% rate of October 2026 is below the long-run average of 7.67%, and below every decade average from the 1970s through the 1990s. It is above every decade average since 2000. Which comparison feels right depends on when a buyer last looked at rates.

The highest and lowest mortgage rates in history

The highest 30-year fixed rate ever recorded by Freddie Mac is 18.63%, in the week of October 9, 1981. The lowest is 2.65%, in the week of January 7, 2021. Those two readings are 15.98 percentage points apart.

Table: Record highs and lows in the Freddie Mac survey

Source: Paperless Pipeline analysis of Freddie Mac PMMS weekly data via FRED and the Freddie Mac PMMS archive. Weekly 30-year data from April 2, 1971 to October 1, 2026, excluding 2004-2007, which use monthly averages (see method).

The 2023 peak matters for anyone comparing today's rates to recent history. Between August 17 and December 7, 2023, the survey printed 7% or higher for 17 weeks in a row. Since January 2022, there have been 28 weekly readings at or above 7%, including September 24 and October 1, 2026.

15-year fixed mortgage rate history, 1991-2026

The 15-year fixed averaged 5.78% so far in 2026, compared with 6.43% for the 30-year fixed over the same weeks. Freddie Mac added the 15-year product to its survey in 1991; the first weekly reading, on August 30, 1991, was 8.77%.

The 15-year rate follows the 30-year closely and sits below it. In the week of October 1, 2026 the gap was 0.68 points (7.28% vs 6.60%). The annual averages show the same relationship in every year of the series.

Table: 15-year vs 30-year annual averages, selected years

Source: Paperless Pipeline analysis of Freddie Mac PMMS data via FRED (MORTGAGE15US) and the Freddie Mac weekly archive. 2008 onward 30-year figures from weekly data; 15-year figures weekly throughout.

The full 15-year series by year is in the main annual table and as the second line on the history chart.

What a $300,000 mortgage cost each month at historic rates

At the October 1, 2026 rate of 7.28%, principal and interest on a $300,000, 30-year fixed loan is $2,052.64 a month. At the 2.65% record low it would have been $1,208.89, and at the 18.63% record high it would have been $4,675.75.

We used the standard fixed-rate amortization formula:

M = P x r / (1 - (1 + r)^-n)

where P is the loan amount ($300,000), r is the annual rate divided by 12, and n is the number of monthly payments (360). The figures cover principal and interest only. They leave out property taxes, homeowners insurance, mortgage insurance and HOA dues, and they assume the rate stays fixed for the full term.

Table: Monthly principal and interest on a $300,000, 30-year fixed loan at selected historic rates

Source: Paperless Pipeline calculation using the rates in this article (Freddie Mac PMMS). Loan amount held constant at $300,000 to isolate the effect of the rate; actual loan sizes in each era were much smaller.

The comparison between 2021 and late 2026 is the one buyers and agents feel most. On the same $300,000 loan, the October 2026 rate costs $794 a month more than the 2021 annual-average rate ($2,052.64 vs $1,258.35), or about $285,900 more in interest over 30 years.

A caution on the older rows: a $300,000 loan in 1981 would have been far above a typical loan size at the time. The table holds the loan amount constant so the only thing changing is the rate. It isolates the cost of the rate. Households in those years borrowed much smaller amounts.

If you want to see how payments interact with down payment size, our down payment statistics page covers what buyers put down and how that has changed.

What drove the biggest moves in mortgage rate history

Mortgage rates move with inflation, Federal Reserve policy and investor demand for mortgage bonds. The four largest shifts in the survey line up with four well-documented episodes: the Great Inflation, the 2008 financial crisis, the 2020 pandemic response and the 2022 inflation fight.

1979 to 1981: inflation and the Volcker Fed

The 30-year rate rose from 10.38% in January 1979 to 18.63% in October 1981. The Federal Reserve's own history of the period, written by Michael Bryan for Federal Reserve History, describes inflation running above 11% when Paul Volcker became Fed chairman in August 1979 and near 14.5% by the summer of 1980.

In October 1979, the Federal Open Market Committee announced it would target reserve growth instead of the federal funds rate. Mortgage rates reacted within weeks. The survey moved from 11.45% on October 12, 1979 to 12.80% on November 2, a jump of 1.35 points in three weeks. In March 1980, the rate rose another 1.40 points in a single week, to 15.40% on March 14, the largest weekly increase on record.

The Fed's account notes that the economy entered recession in July 1981, a downturn that lasted until November 1982, and that inflation was back under 5% by the time it ended. Mortgage rates followed inflation down: the weekly rate fell below 14% in November 1982 and the 1983 annual average was 13.24%, down from 16.04% in 1982.

1982 to 2007: a long decline

From the 1981 peak, the annual average fell in most years for the next two decades, from 16.64% in 1981 to 5.83% in 2003. There were reversals along the way. 1994 averaged 8.38%, up from 7.31% in 1993, and 2000 averaged 8.05%, up from 6.94% in 1998. But each high was lower than the last.

2008 to 2012: the financial crisis and Fed mortgage-bond buying

On November 25, 2008, the Federal Reserve announced it would buy up to $500 billion of mortgage-backed securities guaranteed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae, plus up to $100 billion of debt issued by the housing GSEs. The Fed said the goal was "to reduce the cost and increase the availability of credit for the purchase of houses."

The survey moved quickly. The 30-year rate was 5.97% on November 26, 2008, 5.53% the following week and 5.10% by December 31. The annual average fell from 6.03% in 2008 to 5.04% in 2009 and kept falling, reaching 3.66% in 2012.

2020 to 2021: the pandemic and record lows

On March 15, 2020, the FOMC cut its federal funds target range to 0 to 1/4 percent and said it would increase its holdings of agency mortgage-backed securities by at least $200 billion, along with at least $500 billion of Treasury securities.

The 30-year rate was 3.72% in the first week of 2020. It set a new all-time low of 3.29% on March 5, 2020, breaking the 3.31% low of November 2012, and kept setting new lows into January 2021, when it reached 2.65%. 2021 became the only full year with an average below 3%.

2022 to 2023: the fastest reset since the early 1980s

On March 16, 2022, the FOMC raised the federal funds target range to 1/4 to 1/2 percent, said further increases would be appropriate, and said it expected to start shrinking its holdings of Treasuries and agency mortgage-backed securities. The statement cited inflation "reflecting supply and demand imbalances related to the pandemic, higher energy prices, and broader price pressures."

The 30-year rate was 3.85% the week before that meeting and 4.16% the week after. It reached 5.00% on April 14 and passed 7% on October 27, at 7.08%. The annual average rose 2.38 points from 2021 to 2022, the largest one-year increase since 1981 (2.90 points) and 1980 (2.54 points). The rise continued into 2023, peaking at 7.79% on October 26, 2023.

2024 to 2026: a higher plateau

Since 2023, the annual average has stayed in a narrow band: 6.81% in 2023, 6.72% in 2024, 6.60% in 2025 and 6.43% so far in 2026. Within 2026, the weekly rate has moved from a low of 5.98% in February to 7.28% on October 1.

The biggest one-year changes in mortgage rates

The largest one-year increase in the annual average was 2.90 points, from 13.74% in 1980 to 16.64% in 1981. The largest one-year decline was 2.80 points, from 16.04% in 1982 to 13.24% in 1983.

Table: Largest year-over-year changes in the 30-year annual average

Source: Paperless Pipeline analysis of Freddie Mac PMMS data. Changes calculated from unrounded annual averages, then rounded.

Two of the five largest increases happened in 2022 and 2023. For most working agents and brokers, there is no earlier experience of a move that size: the last comparable stretch ended more than 40 years ago.

What mortgage rate history means for agents, brokers and transaction coordinators

Rate history is useful context for client conversations, and it shapes the timing pressure inside a deal. When rates move half a point in three weeks, as they did in September 2026, every day between an accepted offer and a locked rate carries a cost for the buyer.

Rate locks have expiry dates. Financing contingencies have deadlines. Appraisal and underwriting have to finish inside both. Brokerages that track those dates on every file catch problems before a lock lapses. If your office still tracks closing dates in spreadsheets or email, our guide to managing critical real estate transaction dates covers the key deadlines, and Paperless Pipeline's real estate transaction due dates feature sends reminders for each one.

Historical rates also help set expectations. A buyer comparing today's 7.28% to the 2.65% low of 2021 sees a bad market. The same buyer comparing it to the 7.67% long-run average, or to the 8.12% average of the 1990s, sees something closer to normal. Both comparisons are accurate. Agents who can show the full table, with sources, have a better conversation than agents who pick one number.

For brokers, rate cycles show up directly in transaction counts and agent income. Paperless Pipeline is a transaction management platform for brokers that keeps documents, checklists and deadlines for every deal in one place, which matters most when volume swings with rates. For a view of where the market may head next, see our housing market predictions for 2027, and for the step-by-step sequence of a sale see the real estate transaction process.

How we compiled these statistics

All rates on this page come from Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS), the weekly survey of 30-year and 15-year fixed mortgage rates that Freddie Mac has published since April 1971.

Sources and retrieval. We accessed the data on October 8, 2026:

• Weekly 30-year fixed rates from April 2, 1971 to December 2003 from the FRED table for series MORTGAGE30US (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, last updated October 1, 2026).
• Weekly 30-year and 15-year rates from January 2008 to October 1, 2026 from Freddie Mac's PMMS weekly archive pages for each year.
• Weekly 15-year fixed rates from August 30, 1991 to December 2007 from the FRED table for series MORTGAGE15US.
• Monthly 30-year averages for 2004 to 2007 from the Federal Reserve's H.15 Selected Interest Rates release, FRED series MORTG, which is the monthly average of the same Freddie Mac survey. We cross-checked this series against our weekly data for 1971 to 2003 and 2008 to 2011: monthly averages of our weekly figures matched H.15 to within three hundredths of a point in every month, apart from a handful of months where H.15 counts a December 31 survey week in January.

Why 2004-2007 use monthly data. Freddie Mac's annual archive pages for 2004 through 2007 returned no weekly tables when we compiled this page, and the full weekly download is a spreadsheet. Using the Federal Reserve's monthly averages for those years keeps every figure tied to a published source. The effect on the annual average is small. The effect on annual highs and lows is larger, because a monthly average smooths out the most extreme weeks, so we label those four years clearly.

Annual averages. Simple mean of every weekly reading dated in the calendar year. 1971 begins April 2. 2026 runs through October 1 (39 readings). 1991 15-year figures begin August 30.

Decade averages. Simple mean of the annual averages in each decade. The 1970s cover 1971-1979 and the 2020s cover 2020 to October 2026.

Highs and lows. The highest and lowest single weekly readings in each calendar year, with the survey date.

Average vs median. Every figure here is an average of survey readings. Each weekly PMMS number is itself an average rate across loan applications for borrowers with good to excellent credit, putting 20% down, buying an owner-occupied single-family home with a conforming loan. Individual borrowers can get higher or lower rates depending on credit, down payment, loan type and points.

Methodology change in 2022. On November 17, 2022, Freddie Mac changed how PMMS is produced. Before that date it surveyed lenders on their most popular products. Since then it has calculated the rate from thousands of applications submitted through its Loan Product Advisor system. Readings before and after November 2022 are published as one continuous series by Freddie Mac and FRED, and we treat them that way, but they are produced differently.

Payment calculations. Standard amortization formula, 360 monthly payments, principal and interest only, no points or fees.

Caveats. PMMS covers conventional conforming loans. It does not track FHA, VA, jumbo or adjustable-rate loans in its current form. Older readings were collected from a smaller panel of lenders. Rates in this table are national averages and do not show regional differences.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. Freddie Mac. "Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS): Mortgage Rates." Release of October 1, 2026. https://www.freddiemac.com/pmms
2. Freddie Mac. "Mortgage Market Survey Archive" (weekly data by year, 2008-2026). Accessed October 8, 2026. https://www.freddiemac.com/pmms/pmms_archives
3. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, FRED. "30-Year Fixed Rate Mortgage Average in the United States (MORTGAGE30US)." Source: Freddie Mac. Last updated October 1, 2026. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/data/MORTGAGE30US
4. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, FRED. "15-Year Fixed Rate Mortgage Average in the United States (MORTGAGE15US)." Source: Freddie Mac. Last updated October 1, 2026. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/data/MORTGAGE15US
5. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, H.15 Selected Interest Rates, via FRED. "Contract Rate on 30-Year, Fixed-Rate Conventional Home Mortgage Commitments (MORTG), discontinued." Monthly, 1971-2016. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/data/MORTG
6. Michael Bryan, Federal Reserve History. "The Great Inflation, 1965-1982." Written as of November 22, 2013. https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/great-inflation
7. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. "Federal Reserve announces it will initiate a program to purchase the direct obligations of housing-related government-sponsored enterprises and mortgage-backed securities." Press release, November 25, 2008. https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/monetary20081125b.htm
8. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. "Federal Reserve issues FOMC statement." Press release, March 15, 2020. https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/monetary20200315a.htm
9. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. "Federal Reserve issues FOMC statement." Press release, March 16, 2022. https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/monetary20220316a.htm