Freddie Mac publishes a 30 year fixed-rate mortgage average for the week. In the current week, the average moved up from 6.48% to 6.52%. That is the highest rate for the year and the highest rate going back to August 25 when the yield was at 6.56%
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Looking at the chart, there is a floor near 5.98% to 6.08% that floor extends back to the end of August 2022. In early February, the yield moved to 5.98%.
The 100 and 200 week moving averages, come in at 6.50% and 6.62%. With the average yield at 6.52% this week, it sits between those longer-term averages suggesting a neutral bias.
For 2026, the housing market looks more like a slow-growth, high-rate environment than a boom or bust:
- Existing-home sales: roughly 4.0–4.2 million annual pace.
- New-home sales: roughly 600,000–650,000 annual pace.
- Median existing-home price: about $420,000–$430,000.
- Median new-home price: about $420,000.
- Price appreciation: generally running around 1%–3% nationally.
The biggest story remains affordability. Prices have largely stopped surging, but mortgage rates have stayed high enough to keep many buyers on the sidelines.