The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage edged down to 6.67% this week, a slight pullback after last week’s reading marked the highest level of 2026, Freddie Mac said Thursday in its weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey.
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.67% for the week ending Aug. 13, down from 6.69% the prior week, according to Freddie Mac’s PMMS data. A year ago at this time, the 30-year rate averaged 6.58% β meaning rates remain modestly higher than where they stood 12 months ago.
The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage, popular with refinancing borrowers, averaged 5.96%, down from 6.01% the previous week and up from 5.71% a year earlier.
“Mortgage rates remained relatively stable this week,” Freddie Mac said in its release. “Housing affordability has improved from a year ago, and recent increases in purchase and refinance applications suggest that borrowers continue to respond to even modest changes in mortgage rates.”
The PMMS is based on Freddie Mac’s Loan Product Advisor data, drawn from thousands of loan applications submitted to Freddie Mac by lenders nationwide, and is released every Thursday at noon ET, reflecting an average of rates offered between the prior Thursday and Wednesday.
What it means: The rate figures themselves are Freddie Mac’s own published data β verified and current as of this week’s survey. Freddie Mac’s characterization of borrowers “responding” to rate changes is the agency’s own interpretation, drawn from its observation of application volume, rather than an independently audited causal finding. This week’s dip continues a pattern of rates hovering in a narrow band just below 6.7% after climbing to the year’s high the prior week, a level that has kept many prospective buyers on the sidelines even as housing inventory has loosened in several markets this summer.
The modest week-over-week decline follows a stretch in which rates climbed to the highest level of 2026 and, before that, hit 6.66%, a one-year high. Elevated borrowing costs have weighed on affordability throughout the summer, contributing to pending home sales sinking to a five-month low in recent weeks.
Rates remain well above the sub-4% levels many homeowners locked in during 2020 and 2021, a gap that continues to discourage existing owners from listing their homes and trading up β a dynamic economists have dubbed the “lock-in effect.” Freddie Mac’s data shows rates have oscillated in a roughly quarter-point range over the past month without breaking decisively in either direction, leaving both buyers and the broader housing market waiting for a clearer signal on where borrowing costs head next.
