Data Analysis

Freddie Mac put the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage average at 7.03 percent for the week ending September 24, 2026, up from 6.95 percent last week and 73 basis points above the 6.30 percent of a year earlier.

The 15-year average rose to 6.42 percent from 6.26 percent. The 30-year average has risen in every weekly reading since August 20, when it stood at 6.65 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 7.03 percent in the week ending September 24, 2026, Freddie Mac reported, up from 6.95 percent a week earlier and up from 6.30 percent a year earlier. The 15-year average was 6.42 percent, up from 6.26 percent last week and from 5.49 percent a year ago. That is a rise of 8 basis points on the week and 73 basis points on the year for the 30-year, and 16 and 93 basis points for the 15-year. The 30-year average has risen in every weekly reading since August 20, when it was 6.65 percent.

Seven percent is a round number rather than a threshold with any mechanical force, but it is the number buyers price against, and the 30-year average is above it for the first time in the six weeks of this series the desk has on record.

What did Freddie Mac say about the increase?

Almost nothing, and the omission is worth noting. Sam Khater, Freddie Mac's chief economist, is quoted in the release with a single sentence: "The housing market remains supported by a solid labor market and an economy that is growing at a healthy rate."

That is the entire comment. It offers no explanation for the increase, no forecast and no characterization of where rates sit historically. Freddie Mac does not attribute the rise to any cause in this release, and neither will this article.

Is the Federal Reserve pushing mortgage rates up?

This question follows the Fed's September rate increase, and the honest answer is that the connection is looser than it sounds.

The federal funds rate is an overnight rate for lending between banks. A 30-year mortgage is priced off long-term yields, principally the 10-year Treasury and the mortgage-backed securities market that sits on top of it. Those move on expectations of inflation and growth over years, not on what the Fed does at one meeting. The two can and regularly do move in opposite directions.

The sequence this month makes the point. The 30-year average was already rising for three weeks before the September meeting, from 6.65 percent on August 20 to 6.95 percent on September 17. Whatever is lifting long-term yields was at work before the Fed acted. Freddie Mac has not said what it is.

What does a year of this do to a Florida payment?

Take the statewide median single-family price Florida Realtors reported for August 2026, $415,000, and a buyer putting 20 percent down. That is a loan of $332,000.

At 7.03 percent, the principal and interest on a 30-year loan of that size is about $2,215 a month. At last week's 6.95 percent it was about $2,198. At the 6.30 percent of a year ago it was about $2,055. So the week added roughly $18 a month, and the year has added roughly $161 a month, close to $1,900 over twelve months, on the same house at the same price.

That arithmetic is the desk's own, not Freddie Mac's. It covers principal and interest only. It leaves out property taxes, and it leaves out homeowners insurance, which in much of Florida is the line that actually decides whether a payment works. A rate move of 73 basis points is real money, and in many Florida counties it is still smaller than the year-over-year change in an insurance premium.

What does this mean for Florida buyers right now?

It lands on a market that had already tilted toward them. Redfin reported sellers made concessions in 47.8 percent of Tampa sales in the three months ending August 2026, 43.8 percent in Miami and 43.5 percent in Orlando. That is the negotiating environment a buyer walks into, and higher rates strengthen rather than weaken the case for asking a seller to buy the rate down or cover costs.

Supply is the other half. Florida Realtors put statewide single-family inventory down 13.0 percent from a year earlier in August, with 94,610 homes on the market. So a Florida buyer faces a tighter resale market and a more expensive loan at the same time, which is an uncomfortable combination and the reason concessions matter more than they did.

On the new-construction side, the Census Bureau and HUD reported this morning that the average price of a new house sold nationally in August was $478,700, down 8.8 percent from a year earlier, the only change in that release large enough to clear its own margin of error. Builders have been discounting and buying down rates. At 7.03 percent there is more reason for them to keep doing it.

What this survey does not measure

Freddie Mac states the scope in the release. The survey targets conventional, conforming, fully amortizing home purchase loans for borrowers putting 20 percent down with excellent credit ratings. A Florida buyer with 5 percent down, or a jumbo loan in Miami-Dade or Palm Beach County, or a credit score in the mid 600s, is not the borrower this number describes, and will usually be quoted higher.

It is also a weekly average, not a quote. Rates move daily, and the spread between what this survey reports and what a particular lender offers on a particular day is routinely a quarter point in either direction.

Limitations

The figures for the week ending September 24 come from Freddie Mac's own release of the survey, read twice with different prompts, with identical figures and an identical quote both times. Freddie Mac's freddiemac.com/pmms page was still displaying the week ending September 17 at 12:42 p.m. Eastern, more than 40 minutes after the new release went out. That page carried the September 24 figures by 4:51 p.m. Eastern and matched the release on all six rate values, so every rate in this article is confirmed on two Freddie Mac surfaces.

The earlier weekly values in the chart, from August 20 through September 17, are the same Freddie Mac survey as published by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, which had not posted the September 24 observation as of 4:51 p.m. Eastern. The year-ago figure of 6.30 percent is the one stated in the September 24 release.

No claim is made here about where 7.03 percent sits over any longer period. Freddie Mac's archive page displays only three prior weeks inline, and the desk's own record of this series runs six weeks, so statements such as a high for the year or a high since a given date are not supported and are not made. The payment figures are the desk's arithmetic on a $332,000 loan at the stated rates, principal and interest only. The Florida Realtors, Redfin and Census figures cited for context come from separate reports with their own methods and reference periods.

Sources

Freddie Mac, Primary Mortgage Market Survey, week ending September 24, 2026, "Mortgage Rates Average 7.03%," September 24, 2026

Freddie Mac, Primary Mortgage Market Survey, freddiemac.com/pmms, week ending September 24, 2026

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, 30-Year Fixed Rate Mortgage Average in the United States (MORTGAGE30US), weekly observations August 20 through September 17, 2026, fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MORTGAGE30US

U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, "Monthly New Residential Sales, August 2026," release CB26-155, September 24, 2026

Florida Realtors, August 2026 statewide housing market reports, floridarealtors.org

Redfin, "Nearly Half of Homebuyers Get Concessions From Sellers as Most Markets Tip in Buyers' Favor," September 18, 2026, redfin.com/news/home-seller-concessions-august-2026/

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.