NEW YORK, NY — The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage stood at 6.71% on Aug. 24, 2026, according to Bankrate’s lender survey, keeping borrowing costs in the mid-6% range after a run-up that began in 2022. Freddie Mac’s separate weekly survey put the average at 6.65% on Aug. 20, 2026, down from 6.67% a week earlier but above 6.58% a year earlier.
Bankrate’s long look at mortgage history shows how sharply today’s market differs from the ultra-low-rate era of 2021, when the weekly average reached 2.65%, and from the high-inflation 1980s, when rates climbed above 18%. The comparison matters because mortgage costs have moved far faster than many household budgets, while home prices have stayed elevated.
What The Surveys Show
Bankrate says the 30-year fixed rate has risen from the start of 2026 and now sits above the 2025 average of 6.66%. The site also notes that rates fell through much of January and February this year before bottoming at 6.01% on Feb. 19, the lowest weekly average since September 2022. Since then, mortgage pricing has moved back up into the mid-6% range.
Freddie Mac’s benchmark follows conforming purchase loans with 20% down and strong credit, so it will not match every borrower’s quote. Still, the two surveys point in the same direction: rates are lower than the 2023 peak above 8%, but materially higher than the sub-4% levels that shaped much of the early 2020s.
Why Rates Moved
Bankrate ties the recent climb to persistent inflation and higher 10-year Treasury yields, which help set mortgage pricing. The site also says rates drifted down through 2025 even after the Federal Reserve cut its benchmark rate six times across late 2024 and 2025, showing that mortgage rates do not move in lockstep with the Fed.
In its history review, Bankrate says the pandemic pushed mortgage rates to a record low in 2021, but the market turned quickly once the Fed began raising rates in 2022 to fight inflation. The 30-year fixed then broke above 8% in October 2023 for the first time since 2000, before easing again in 2024 and 2025. Bankrate also links an early-2026 jump to turmoil that lifted oil markets and Treasury yields.
What Borrowers Face
For households, Bankrate’s biggest point is that shopping matters almost as much as the rate environment. Its Hidden Homeownership Tax research found that 87% of borrowers in 2025 paid more than the best rate available to them, and the typical borrower overpaid by $278 a month, or $3,343 a year, by not comparing enough lenders.
Bankrate says 78.7% of refinance borrowers overpaid on their new rate in 2025 as well. The company advises borrowers to compare at least three lenders, check their credit, and weigh refinance closing costs, which it says usually run 2% to 5% of the loan amount. Readers can verify current quotes through Bankrate’s mortgage calculator, Freddie Mac’s weekly survey, or lender rate tables, but the future path of mortgage rates remains uncertain.
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