# Mortgage Rates Freddie Mac's weekly 30-year fixed average — the number through which ordinary households experience [[Federal Funds Rate]] policy (via the 10-year Treasury, not directly). The jump from sub-3% (2021) to ~7% (2023–2024) created the lock-in effect: owners with cheap mortgages can't afford to move, freezing inventory and keeping prices high even as affordability collapsed. Politically high-salience: presidential demands for Fed cuts are routinely sold as "lower mortgage rates for families," eliding that long rates price inflation risk — a Fed perceived as politically captured can *cut* the funds rate and watch mortgage rates *rise* on inflation fears. That scenario is the live test of the Warsh-era Fed. ## Latest reading *As of 2026-10-07 · refreshed monthly · the cross-indicator read lives at [[State of the US Economy]].* - **Freddie Mac 30-year fixed: 7.28%** for the week of Oct 1, 2026, up from 7.03% a week earlier and 6.34% a year ago. That was the **sixth straight weekly increase** and a nearly three-year high. The 15-year was 6.60%. - **Mortgages are following the long end.** The 10-year Treasury closed at **5.31%** on Oct 5, and mortgage rates price off it. The Fed *raised* the funds rate on Sept 16, so the cut-while-mortgages-rise scenario above has not yet been tested. See [[Monetary Policy Transmission Flow]] and [[Housing Affordability]]. *Sources:* [Freddie Mac PMMS](https://www.freddiemac.com/pmms) · [AP via Florida Realtors](https://www.floridarealtors.org/news-media/news-articles/2026/10/mortgage-rates-rise-nearly-3-year-high) · [Treasury daily yield curve](https://home.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/interest-rates/TextView?type=daily_treasury_yield_curve&field_tdr_date_value_month=202610) · [FRED DGS10](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/DGS10)