Photo: Tony Webster / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0. Edgewater Estates in Maple Grove, Minnesota, February 23, 2018. Archive housing illustration, not a scene from this week’s rate report. Resized and cropped.
MCLEAN, Va. – The average U.S. rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage fell to 7.18% this week, a third consecutive weekly decline that offers some relief to prospective homebuyers but leaves borrowing costs above their level a year ago.
The average was down from 7.24% last week, according to Freddie Mac’s November 5 release. At the same time in 2025, it was 6.22%.
The 15-year fixed mortgage averaged 6.57%, compared with 6.60% a week earlier and 5.50% a year earlier. Both benchmarks therefore eased over the week while remaining more expensive than a year ago.
Three weekly declines, not a return to last year’s rates
Freddie Mac’s survey archive shows the 30-year average at 7.40% on October 15, 7.32% on October 22 and 7.24% on October 29 before this week’s 7.18% reading. The latest decline was 0.06 percentage point, or six basis points.
Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, said the continued decline was improving conditions for prospective buyers. The smaller weekly borrowing cost does not erase the year-over-year difference: the current 30-year average is 0.96 percentage point above the comparable 2025 reading.
What the survey measures
Freddie Mac, the housing-finance company that supports liquidity in the mortgage market, publishes the Primary Mortgage Market Survey, or PMMS, as a national weekly benchmark. It focuses on conventional, conforming, fully amortizing home-purchase loans for borrowers putting 20% down and having excellent credit.
The survey methodology uses rates collected from thousands of loan applications submitted by lenders through Freddie Mac’s Loan Product Advisor system. The Thursday release covers application activity from the prior Thursday through Wednesday. It is a weekly average, not a promise that a particular lender will offer every borrower that rate.
These are home-purchase averages, not refinance quotes or the Federal Reserve’s policy rate. An individual mortgage offer can differ from the survey benchmark. Freddie Mac also does not publish average fees and points in this survey, so the headline rate should not be treated as a complete statement of a loan’s cost.
What changes for borrowers
For a new borrower comparing otherwise identical loan terms, a lower interest rate reduces the principal-and-interest payment. The weekly survey’s decline does not, however, change the contracted principal-and-interest payment on an existing fixed-rate mortgage, consistent with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s explanation of fixed-rate loans. Property taxes, insurance and other charges are separate from that fixed loan payment.
The practical distinction is between incremental relief for people seeking a new loan and an automatic saving for existing homeowners. This week’s figures show the former, not the latter, and do not establish that rates are at their lowest level of the month or year.
JBizNews Desk | McLean, Virginia
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