Market Brief

Mortgage rates ease to 6.67% while builder price cuts reach a 16th straight month

Freddie Mac's 30-year fell for a second straight week. Builder confidence ticked up to 35, but 35% of builders are still cutting prices to move homes.

The daily read on the numbers that set Florida housing costs: mortgage rates, national demand, builder behavior, and what all three mean for a buyer or seller in Northeast Florida this week.

Mortgage rates fell for a second straight week

The Freddie Mac 30-year fixed rate mortgage averaged 6.67% for the week ended August 13, 2026, down from 6.69% the week before. The 15-year averaged 5.96%, down from 6.01%.

Two points of context keep this from being a rally. A year ago the 30-year averaged 6.58%, so today's rate is roughly 9 basis points higher than it was last August. And the 6.69% print on August 6 was an eleven month high, so the last two weeks are a fade off a peak rather than a break in direction.

For a buyer, two down weeks is not yet a reason to change a plan. It becomes one at three or four.

National demand is flat, not falling

The National Association of Realtors released July existing home sales on August 11:

• Sales fell 1.7% from June and rose 0.7% from July 2025
• Inventory stood at 1.54 million units, down 1.9% from June and down 0.6% year over year
• Months of supply held at 4.6, unchanged both from June and from a year ago
• The median existing home price rose 2.0% to $434,100, a 37th consecutive month of annual gains

The national picture is a standoff. Sales are roughly flat on the year, supply is not building, and price growth has slowed to something close to general inflation. That matters for Florida because it establishes that the softness in parts of this state is a Florida story, not a national one.

Builders are buying the payment down rather than cutting the price

The NAHB and Wells Fargo Housing Market Index for August, released this morning, came in at 35, up one point from July. It is the sixteenth consecutive month below 40.

• 35% of builders cut prices in August, down from 37% in July
• The average reduction held at 6%
• 63% are using sales incentives of some kind
• Current sales conditions rose two points to 39; six month expectations held at 43; prospective buyer traffic held at 23

Buyer traffic at 23 is the number worth watching, and it has not moved. Builders are defending volume with incentives and rate buydowns rather than with sticker reductions, which is the same behavior our own transaction data shows locally: seller concessions on new construction now run about 4.0% of price in Northeast Florida against roughly 2.5% on resale.

NAHB also flags rising gas and diesel prices pushing material costs, which squeezes the incentive budget from the other side.

What this means in Northeast Florida

Three practical reads for anyone buying or selling here right now.

If you are buying new construction, the incentive is where the value is, not the list price. A builder holding sticker while offering a rate buydown and closing cost help is the pattern in the data, so the comparison worth running is the total monthly payment across two builders, not the two asking prices.

If you are selling a resale home, you are competing against that incentive package rather than against a lower list price. Concession expectations have moved, and a seller pricing off close prices alone without accounting for what was given back at the table is working from a number that reads high.

If you are comparing property types, the attached market has changed shape. Our analysis of realMLS closed sales found that townhomes passed condominiums in share of Northeast Florida closings in 2022 and now lead 10.8% to 6.7%, with buyers paying more per square foot to make the switch. Carrying costs outside the mortgage payment are doing more work than sticker price.

For the underlying local figures see our Jacksonville housing market data page.

People also ask

Are mortgage rates going down in 2026?

The Freddie Mac 30-year fixed averaged 6.67% for the week ended August 13, 2026, its second consecutive weekly decline, after hitting an eleven month high of 6.69% on August 6. Rates remain about 9 basis points above where they stood a year earlier, when the 30-year averaged 6.58%. Two weekly declines off a peak are not yet a trend, and nothing in the current data supports planning around a specific future rate.

Is now a good time to buy a new construction home in Florida?

That depends on the individual buyer's finances and timeline, and this is general information rather than advice. What the data shows is that 63% of builders nationally are using sales incentives and 35% cut prices in August, with an average reduction of 6%. In practice that means the negotiable value in a new construction purchase currently sits in incentives and rate buydowns more than in the asking price, so comparing total monthly cost across builders is more informative than comparing list prices.

Why is builder confidence still low?

The NAHB and Wells Fargo index has read below 40 for sixteen consecutive months, at 35 in August 2026. The component tracking prospective buyer traffic sits at 23 and has not moved, which points to demand rather than to builder capacity. NAHB cites affordability pressure, high construction costs, and rising gas and diesel prices raising material costs, with speculative home building remaining weak.

The takeaway

Rates eased slightly, national demand held flat, and builders continued to hold price while paying down the payment. None of the three moved far enough this week to change a buying or selling plan on its own. The one number that would change the picture is prospective buyer traffic, and it did not move.

Sources and links

• Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, week ended August 13, 2026: https://www.freddiemac.com/pmms
• National Association of Realtors, Existing Home Sales, July 2026, released August 11, 2026: https://www.nar.realtor/newsroom/nar-existing-home-sales-report-shows-1-7-decrease-in-july
• NAHB and Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, August 2026: https://www.nahb.org/news-and-economics/press-releases/2026/08/affordability-pressures-keep-builder-confidence-low
• NAHB Eye On Housing commentary, August 2026: https://eyeonhousing.org/2026/08/affordability-pressures-keep-builder-confidence-low/
• Momentum Research analysis of realMLS closed residential sales, Baker, Bradford, Clay, Duval, Nassau, Putnam and St. Johns counties

Disclosure: Jon Brooks is a co-founder of Momentum Realty, a Florida real estate brokerage that owns and funds Florida Housing Intelligence. Momentum has a financial interest in Florida real estate transactions, including in markets named here. See our editorial standards.