Data Analysis

Freddie Mac put the 30-year fixed mortgage rate at 7.28 percent in the week of October 1, 2026, up 0.25 point in a week, the largest weekly increase of the year and the sixth straight weekly rise.

The 15-year average rose to 6.60 percent. The 30-year rate is now 1.30 points above its February low and 0.94 point above where it stood a year ago.

Freddie Mac reported a 30-year fixed mortgage rate average of 7.28 percent for the week of October 1, 2026, up from 7.03 percent a week earlier. The 15-year average rose to 6.60 percent from 6.42 percent. The 0.25 point weekly move on the 30-year is the largest of 2026, the sixth consecutive weekly increase, and it leaves the rate 1.30 points above the year's low of 5.98 percent set in the week of February 26 and 0.94 point above the 6.34 percent Freddie Mac shows for a year ago.

Six weeks of increases is the part that matters more than the single print. The run started small, with a one basis point rise in the week of August 27, and has gathered pace since.

How much have mortgage rates risen in 2026?

The 30-year average opened the year at 6.16 percent in the week of January 8, drifted down to 5.98 percent by late February, and has climbed in most weeks since. It crossed 6.50 percent in late May, sat between 6.43 and 6.69 percent through the summer, and then moved up in each of the last six weekly surveys: 6.66 percent on August 27, 6.71, 6.76, 6.95, 7.03 and now 7.28 percent.

That is a gain of 0.63 point in six weeks, roughly half of the 1.30 point rise from February's low. The 15-year average has followed the same shape, from 5.44 percent in late February to 6.60 percent now, a 1.16 point climb.

The gap between the two terms widened this week to 0.68 point from 0.61 point, which is the 30-year moving faster than the 15-year rather than the 15-year falling.

What does 7.28 percent cost a Florida buyer?

On a $320,000 loan, which is what a 20 percent down payment leaves on a $400,000 purchase, principal and interest at 7.28 percent runs about $2,189 a month. The same loan at last week's 7.03 percent runs $2,135, so this week's move adds about $54 a month, or $649 a year.

Against the February low of 5.98 percent, the same loan runs $1,914, so the year's climb has added about $275 a month and $3,300 a year. Against the 6.34 percent of a year ago, the difference is about $200 a month and $2,405 a year. Over a full 30-year term and with no refinancing or early payoff, the gap between 5.98 percent and 7.28 percent on that loan is roughly $99,000 in interest.

These are this desk's calculations from the published rates. They cover principal and interest only, so they exclude property taxes, insurance, HOA dues and mortgage insurance, all of which matter in Florida and in some markets matter more than the rate.

What rising rates do to a market already carrying a lot of unsold homes is a separate question from what they do to a monthly payment. For what is happening to prices, inventory and days on market across the state, the Florida housing tracker and the market pages carry metro-level figures, including Miami, Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville.

Does this match what other rate measures show?

Not exactly, and the difference is worth understanding before comparing two numbers from different sources.

Freddie Mac describes its survey this way: results "are based on the mortgage rate collected from thousands of loan applications submitted to Freddie Mac through Loan Product Advisor from lenders across the country when a borrower applies for a mortgage." So the PMMS average comes from actual applications moving through one channel, not from advertised rates and not from a daily lock index.

That is why PMMS can sit below a daily rate-lock index in a week when rates are climbing. A weekly average built from applications lags a daily index that reprices every morning. Readers comparing a 7.28 percent weekly survey average against a daily number quoted somewhere else are usually comparing two different things rather than finding a contradiction.

What does the release say about why?

Very little, and this article does not fill the gap. The page carries one line of commentary, "With mortgage rates on their current trajectory, the housing market continues to be supported by favorable economic conditions," and it is not attributed to any named economist. Freddie Mac offers no explanation for the six-week climb in the material published with the survey.

Limitations

Freddie Mac publishes the survey weekly on Thursdays at noon Eastern, moving to Wednesday when a holiday falls on Thursday. It did not appear on schedule this week. Checks at 1:03 and 1:05 p.m. Eastern found both freddiemac.com/pmms and the survey archive still showing the week of September 24 as the most recent. The October 1 figures appeared on the main survey page by 2:40 p.m.

At the time of writing, the October 1 week had appeared on the main survey page but not yet in the survey archive, which still ended at September 24. The headline figures here therefore rest on two separate readings of the main page, taken more than fifteen minutes apart with different questions, which returned identical values for the current week, the prior week and the year-ago week. They do not rest on two different pages.

Every figure before October 1 in this article and in the chart comes from Freddie Mac's own 2026 archive, which was read in full at 38 weekly rows. That archive covers 2026 only, so no claim is made here about where 7.28 percent sits against any year before 2026. It is the highest weekly average of 2026 and nothing stronger is asserted.

The streak count, the weekly and annual changes, the spread between the two terms and all payment figures were computed by this desk from the published rates rather than taken from Freddie Mac.

Mortgage rates are national. Freddie Mac publishes no state or metro breakdown in this survey, so nothing here is a Florida rate.

Sources

Freddie Mac, Primary Mortgage Market Survey, week of October 1, 2026: freddiemac.com/pmms

Freddie Mac, Mortgage Market Survey Archive, weekly rates for 2026: freddiemac.com/pmms/archive

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.