The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage climbed to 6.76% this week, the highest reading since June 2025, as a surge in crude oil prices pulled Treasury yields higher.
Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey, released Sept. 10, put the 30-year average at 6.76%, up from 6.71% a week earlier and above the 6.35% average of a year ago. The 15-year fixed rate averaged 6.09%, up from 6.04% the prior week and from 5.50% in September 2025.
The last time the survey recorded a higher weekly average was the week of June 26, 2025, when the 30-year stood at 6.77%, according to Freddie Mac’s published series. Rates have now risen about three-quarters of a percentage point from this year’s low of 5.98%, set in late February, and have increased in each of the last three survey weeks from 6.65% on Aug. 20.
“The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.76% this week,” Freddie Mac said in its release. “Aspiring buyers should remember shopping around for the best mortgage rate and getting multiple quotes can potentially save them thousands.”
Oil is doing the damage
Mortgage rates do not follow the Federal Reserve’s policy rate directly. They track the 10-year Treasury yield and the premium investors demand to hold mortgage-backed securities instead of government debt. That yield has been grinding up: Treasury Department data put the 10-year constant maturity at 4.83% on Sept. 9, from 4.77% on Sept. 3 and 4.79% on Sept. 1. The 2-year finished Sept. 9 at 4.17%.
The move in yields has coincided with a sharp run in energy. Energy Information Administration spot data show West Texas Intermediate crude at $97.26 a barrel on Sept. 9, up from $92.15 on Sept. 2. Brent crude went from $97.59 to $109.51 across the same seven sessions. Rising fuel costs feed through to broad price measures, and bond investors price that in as inflation risk.
The morning’s inflation data gave them something to work with. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Sept. 10 that its producer price index for final demand rose 0.4% in August on a seasonally adjusted basis and 5.4% over the 12 months ended in August. Final demand energy prices rose 4.2% for the month, and diesel fuel jumped 24.1%.
Those figures arrived after Freddie Mac’s survey week had closed, so they are not in this week’s 6.76%. They point at next week’s.
The Fed meets next week
The Federal Open Market Committee gathers Sept. 15 and 16. It is one of four meetings this year that comes with a Summary of Economic Projections, the quarterly grid showing where each policymaker expects rates to sit in coming years. Producer inflation running at 5.4% with energy still climbing is an awkward backdrop, and it follows a summer in which Chair Kevin Warsh told an audience at Jackson Hole that inflation takes priority over housing strain.
On our reading, the projections matter more to mortgage borrowers than the rate decision itself. Long-term yields move on where investors believe policy and inflation are headed over years, not on a single quarter-point step. A projection path showing rates higher for longer would keep pressure on the 30-year even if the committee leaves its target range alone.
What it costs
On a $400,000 loan, the difference between February’s 5.98% and this week’s 6.76% is about $204 a month in principal and interest, or roughly $2,450 a year. The one-week move from 6.71% is worth about $13 a month, which sounds trivial until it is stacked on the three weeks before it.
The increase lands on a market that had already cooled. The National Association of Realtors reported Sept. 10 that existing-home sales slowed to an annual pace of 3.98 million in August. Inventory has been building through the summer, which means sellers are competing for a buyer pool whose purchasing power shrinks with every basis point.
Freddie Mac’s suggestion to collect multiple quotes is not filler at these levels. The survey reports rates offered on conventional, conforming loans to well-qualified borrowers; an individual quote depends on the lender, the credit profile, the down payment and the loan size, and the spread between the best and worst offers widens when the bond market is moving this fast. RealtyWire’s mortgage coverage tracks the weekly survey and the lending changes around it.
