Mortgage rate history: 1972 to 2026
Mortgage rate history: 1972 to 2026.
As of July 9, 2026, the average rate for a 30-year, fixed loan was 6.49% — up from the beginning of the year, and only a touch lower than the 2025 average of 6.66%.
Over the past four decades, the 30-year fixed rate ranged from a 2021 low of 2.65% to a 1981 high above 18%.
The average 30-year fixed rate bottomed in 2021 at just under 3%.
87% of all borrowers in 2025 paid more than the most competitive rate available to them, according to Bankrate's Hidden Homeownership Tax research — meaning rate history matters less to your bill than whether you actually shopped your own rate.
The residential mortgage as we know it today is less than a century old. In fact, until the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) was established in 1934, only one in 10 Americans even owned a home. That all changed with the introduction of the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage during the Great Depression, which made homeownership possible for millions.
Recent changes in mortgage rates have put a strain on the housing market. Historically low rates at the start of the 2020s led to a surge in home prices, and rates have stayed consistently between 6% and 7% since the Federal Reserve raised rates in 2022. However, home prices remain high. This combination of climbing prices with higher-than-recent rates has made housing affordability a major problem.
Here is a timeline of the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate by year. Bankrate first began aggregating rate data in 1982; all data prior was sourced from Freddie Mac. The 2026 average is through July 9.
As of July 14, 2026, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate is 6.64%, per Bankrate's lender survey . Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey, a separate weekly benchmark based on conforming purchase loans with 20% down and strong credit, put the 30-year fixed average at 6.49% as of July 9, 2026 — up from 6.43% the week before and down from 6.72% a year earlier.
Rates fell through most of the first two months of 2026, bottoming at a 2026 low of 6.01% on Feb. 19 — the lowest weekly average since September 2022. They've climbed back into the mid-6% range since, as persistent inflation and Treasury yields have kept upward pressure on mortgage pricing.
In 2025, the typical borrower overpaid by $278 a month — $3,343 a year — simply by not comparing enough lenders, according to Bankrate's Hidden Homeownership Tax research. You can't control the Fed, oil prices or Treasury yields, but you can control how many lenders you compare — and that's the part most borrowers skip.
Entering 2020, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was already below 4%. Then the COVID-19 pandemic pushed it to a weekly low of 2.65% in January 2021 — the lowest rate on record.
In 2022, the Federal Reserve began raising its benchmark interest rate to fight inflation, and mortgage rates rose sharply alongside it. By October 2023, the 30-year mortgage rate broke through 8% for the first time since 2000.
Rates stayed in the 6s and 7s through most of 2024. The Fed cut its benchmark rate three times in late 2024 and three more times in 2025, but mortgage rates didn't fall in lockstep — they drifted down over the course of 2025, closing the year averaging 6.66%.
Rates kept falling into early 2026 until the conflict with Iran disrupted oil markets in February, which analysts tied to a jump in 10-year Treasury yields — and mortgage rates followed.
In the 2010s, the 30-year mortgage rate trended downward, beginning in the 4% range, dipping below 4%, and ending the decade back in that range. These low rates were brought on in part by the Federal Reserve's Great Recession-era policies.
Driven by the subprime mortgage crisis of the late 2000s, the 30-year mortgage rate tumbled from about 8% at the start of the decade down to 5.4% by 2009. At the time, the Federal Reserve implemented quantitative easing, buying mortgage-backed securities in bulk to drive down interest rates and usher in an economic recovery.
The 1990s saw a significant shift in the 30-year mortgage rate, which plunged to an average of 6.91% in 1998. This drop was brought on by the dot-com bubble, an era when investors rushed to buy stocks from overvalued technology companies. When these stocks plummeted, investors turned their focus to fixed-income investments, such as bonds. As bond prices rose and yields fell, mortgage rates, which follow the 10-year Treasury yield, also declined.
The median U.S. home price rose from $63,700 in 1980 to $123,900 by 1990, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Mortgage rates peaked at 18.4% in October 1981 alone as the Federal Reserve fought runaway inflation — though the full 1981 annual average came in lower, at 16.64%, since rates were lower for the rest of the year. Once inflation cooled, rates eased into the 9% range, closing the decade at 9.78%.
