Mortgage Rates Today: What the 30-Year Fixed Costs on a $400,000 Loan, and What Moves It

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Rates as of Oct. 22, 2026, from Freddie Mac’s weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey. We update this page after each Thursday release.

The 30-year mortgage rate averaged 7.32% in Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey for Oct. 22, 2026, down from 7.40% the week before and well above the 6.19% buyers saw a year earlier. The 15-year fixed rate was 6.68%, down from 6.71%, against 5.44% a year ago.

A gap of about 1.1 percentage points from last year sounds abstract until you put it on a real loan. This guide does that math, explains what moves mortgage rates and why the Fed is only one factor, and lists what to check before you lock. It is general information, not financial advice.

In this article

• What Freddie Mac reported
• What the gap costs on $400,000
• The 15-year trade-off
• Why the Fed does not set your rate
• Why timing the market is hard
• What to do if you are buying
• Four checks before you lock
• Editor’s take

What Freddie Mac reported

Freddie Mac’s survey shows the 30-year fixed at 7.32% as of Oct. 22, down from 7.40% the previous week and up from 6.19% a year earlier. The 15-year fixed is 6.68%, down from 6.71% the previous week and up from 5.44% a year ago. The survey is published on Thursdays at noon Eastern, and each figure averages the rates offered from the prior Thursday through Wednesday.

For context, the 7.40% readings on Oct. 8 and Oct. 15 were the highest in Freddie Mac’s series since November 2023, and the rate had been 6.71% as recently as Sept. 3, 2026.

Two cautions. First, this is an average, so your quote can be higher or lower depending on your credit score, down payment, loan type and the lender. Second, it is a weekly snapshot. A rate you see quoted on a given day may differ from the survey, which looks backward over several days.

What the gap costs on $400,000

Here is the worked example, using the standard amortization formula and counting principal and interest only, not taxes, insurance or fees. On a $400,000 loan over 30 years, a 7.32% rate means a payment of about $2,748 a month. At last year’s 6.19%, the same loan would have cost about $2,447. That is roughly $300 more each month, or about $3,600 a year.

The lifetime picture is larger. At 7.32%, total interest over 30 years on that loan comes to about $589,000. At 6.19%, it would be about $481,000, a difference of roughly $108,000. On a smaller $300,000 loan, the monthly gap is about $225, or around $2,700 a year.

These are our own calculations from Freddie Mac’s published rates, and they assume the loan is held for the full term. Most borrowers sell or refinance sooner, which changes the lifetime cost, but the monthly payment gap is real from the first day.

The 15-year trade-off

The 15-year rate is lower, 6.68%, but the payment is higher because the loan is paid off in half the time. On the same $400,000, a 15-year loan at 6.68% works out to about $3,524 a month, compared with about $2,748 on the 30-year at 7.32%. The difference is roughly $776 a month, by our calculation.

What you get for it is a much smaller interest bill: about $234,000 over 15 years, against about $589,000 over 30. Whether that is worth it depends on your budget, not on the headline rate. A payment you cannot sustain is the most expensive option of all, and the lower rate does not help if it stretches your monthly cash flow too thin. To see how a payment translates into a home price, our worked example of how much house you can afford walks through it.

Why the Fed does not set your rate

The Federal Reserve controls a short-term interest rate, the rate at which banks lend to one another overnight. On Sept. 16 it raised that target range by a quarter point to 3.75% to 4.00%, citing inflation that “remains elevated.” A 30-year mortgage, though, tracks the 10-year Treasury yield much more closely, and it is the bond market, not a committee, that sets that yield.

The bond market did most of the work this autumn. By our arithmetic from the Treasury’s daily par yield curve table, the 10-year averaged about 4.99% in September, up from about 4.68% in August, and closed above 5% every day from Sept. 23 onward. It reached 5.31% on Oct. 5 and closed at 5.13% on Oct. 21. As the yield rose, lenders repriced, and Freddie Mac’s average climbed from 6.71% in early September to 7.40% by Oct. 8. The gap between the 30-year rate and the 10-year yield, about 2.2 percentage points in the latest survey week, is the margin lenders add for risk and costs.

The Fed’s rate does reach some products quickly. Variable credit card rates typically adjust within one or two billing cycles, and adjustable-rate mortgages and home equity lines of credit also tend to go up. Savers can benefit, since high-yield savings accounts, money-market funds and CDs generally stay attractive while the Fed is tightening. Homeowners with an earlier fixed-rate loan are mostly protected, which is one reason many are reluctant to sell: selling would mean giving up a low fixed rate for one above 7%.

Why timing the market is hard

It is tempting to wait for a lower rate. The trouble is that the same forces that push mortgage costs down, such as slower growth, can also soften home prices, hiring and your own income. Meanwhile, inflation has been running hot: the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ consumer price index rose 3.7% in the year to September, which is why the Fed has been debating further hikes. The median projection the Fed published in September shows one more quarter-point increase in 2026 and the policy rate staying around that level through 2027, with projected cuts not arriving until 2028.

Nobody can say where the 30-year mortgage rate will be in three months. What you can control is how much payment you can carry, how large a down payment you can make and how clean your credit is. If a home fits your budget at the current rate, a later drop becomes a refinance opportunity. If it only fits at a hoped-for lower rate, that is a sign to keep saving and shopping, not to stretch.

What to do if you are buying

This is not personalized advice, but a few practical steps apply to most buyers.

• Stop waiting for a drop you cannot time. With the Fed’s own projections showing no cuts until 2028, a plan that depends on rates falling next quarter is a bet, not a strategy.
• Price the purchase at the current rate, plus a cushion. Run the payment at 7.5% and see whether it still works. On $400,000 over 30 years that is about $2,797 a month in principal and interest, by our calculation. If it works, a later drop becomes a bonus.
• Consider a rate buydown. Paying points or negotiating seller credits can lower the rate, but compare the break-even point with how long you plan to stay.
• Understand an ARM before you take one. An adjustable-rate mortgage can lower the starting payment, but only if you understand the reset schedule and the caps.
• Treat refinancing as optional. You can refinance later if rates fall, but check first whether the closing costs are worth the expected savings.

If you already own a home and are weighing a new loan, our guide on whether you should refinance your mortgage covers the break-even math, and the mortgage refinance calculator runs it with your own numbers.

Four checks before you lock

If you are shopping, the practical steps matter more than guessing the weekly direction. Get written quotes from at least three lenders on the same day, using identical assumptions, because rates and fees vary. Compare the annual percentage rate, not just the headline rate, so points and lender fees are included. Ask how long the quote is valid and what a lock costs if closing is delayed. And ask about the cost of a later refinance, since some borrowers plan to refinance if rates fall.

It also helps to know your own numbers first: your credit score, your down payment and the monthly payment you are comfortable with after taxes and insurance. A lender can only quote against what you bring, and a small improvement in credit score can sometimes move a quote more than a week of market drift.

Editor’s take

Watch the 10-year yield, not the Fed headlines. The Freddie Mac number looks backward, while the yield moves daily and tells you where lenders are heading. If you are deciding whether to lock, a quote you can afford at the current 30-year mortgage rate is worth more than waiting for a drop that nobody can promise. If you are about to make an offer, ask your lender about a written rate lock; it usually costs little compared with what a bond-market swing can do to your payment.