Data study · mortgage rates
Historical Mortgage Rates, 1971–2026
Every year of US fixed mortgage rates since Freddie Mac began tracking them — the 30-year and 15-year averages, the all-time high, the record low, and where today's rate sits in five decades of context. Updated from the official weekly survey.
- 30-yr fixed today 6.49% as of June 2026
- All-time high 18.63% October 1981
- Record low 2.65% January 2021
- 1971–2026 average 7.67% 30-yr fixed, annual mean
Five decades of mortgage rates at a glance
The chart above plots the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage from 1971 to today, using Freddie Mac's weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey — the benchmark every lender, journalist and economist quotes. The shape tells the whole story: a steep climb through the inflationary 1970s to a violent peak in the early 1980s, a long decline across the next forty years, a historic bottom during the pandemic, and the sharp snap-back that followed. Today's 6.49% looks high against the cheap money of 2020–2021, but it is still below the 7.67% that the 30-year has averaged over its entire history.
The all-time high: 18.63% in October 1981
The record sits at 18.63%, reached in October 1981. It was the price of breaking inflation. Through the late 1970s, consumer prices were rising at double-digit rates, and in 1979 the Federal Reserve under Paul Volcker began raising its benchmark rate to punishing levels to stop them. Long-term borrowing costs followed the Fed up, and the 30-year mortgage briefly cleared 18%.
What does an 18% mortgage actually feel like? On a $200,000 loan, the monthly principal and interest at 18.63% works out to about $3,117 — versus roughly $1,263 at today's 6.49%. Same loan, more than double the payment. It is the single clearest illustration of why the rate, not just the price, decides what a home really costs.
The record low: 2.65% in January 2021
At the other extreme, the 30-year fixed bottomed at 2.65% in January 2021, in the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Federal Reserve had cut its benchmark rate to near zero and was buying mortgage-backed bonds by the hundreds of billions to keep credit flowing. That pushed mortgage rates to the lowest level ever recorded. The same $200,000 loan cost just $806 a month — about a third of the 1981 payment, and the reason so many homeowners who locked in during 2020–2021 are reluctant to move and give up their rate.
What actually moves mortgage rates
Mortgage rates are not set by the Federal Reserve directly. They track the 10-year Treasury yield plus a spread, and that yield reflects what bond investors expect for inflation and growth. When inflation runs hot, rates rise; when the economy weakens or the Fed signals easier policy, they tend to fall. The spread itself widens in times of stress. That is why mortgage rates can move well before the Fed acts — and why the history above looks like a story about inflation, because it largely is. To see the benchmarks behind today's number, check today's rates, and to turn any rate into a real monthly payment, use the mortgage calculator.
How rates moved, decade by decade
Zooming out hides the texture, so here is the same history broken into decades. Each panel below charts the 30-year fixed across those ten years, with the decade's own high and low marked. It's the clearest way to see how different each era felt — the relentless climb of the 1970s, the long descent from the 1980s peak, the near-flat ultra-cheap stretch of the 2010s, and the sharp 2022 jump that ended it.
Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS), via APIVerve · data through June 2026.
Mortgage rates for a specific year
Want a single year in detail — its average, range and the story behind it? Pick a year:
Historical mortgage rates — FAQ
What is the highest mortgage rate in history?
The highest weekly average 30-year fixed mortgage rate on record was 18.63%, reached in October 1981. Rates spiked that high as the Federal Reserve, under Paul Volcker, pushed interest rates to extreme levels to break the double-digit inflation of the late 1970s and early 1980s. At 18.63%, the principal and interest on a $200,000 loan would have run about $3,117 a month.
What is the lowest mortgage rate ever?
The record low for the 30-year fixed was 2.65%, set in January 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic when the Federal Reserve cut rates to near zero and bought mortgage bonds to support the economy. That same $200,000 loan cost only about $806 a month in principal and interest — roughly a third of the 1981 payment.
What is the average mortgage rate historically?
Across the full 1971–2026 history of Freddie Mac's survey, the 30-year fixed has averaged roughly 7.67% a year. That long-run average is a useful anchor: today's rate of 6.49% sits below the historical average, even though it feels high compared with the unusually cheap money of the 2010s and 2020–2021.
Why were mortgage rates so high in the 1980s?
Mortgage rates track inflation and the Federal Reserve's response to it. In the late 1970s inflation ran into double digits, so the Fed raised its benchmark rate dramatically to bring prices under control. Long-term rates, including mortgages, followed — peaking near 18–19%. Once inflation was tamed through the 1980s and 1990s, mortgage rates fell in a long, decades-long decline.
Will mortgage rates go back down?
No one can predict rates reliably, and this page is history, not a forecast. What the record shows is that mortgage rates move with inflation, growth and Fed policy, and that they can change faster than most people expect in either direction. Rather than time the market, it helps to know the payment you can afford at today's rate and to keep an eye on whether refinancing later could make sense.
Where does this mortgage rate data come from?
All figures come from the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS), the standard weekly benchmark for US fixed mortgage rates, accessed through APIVerve. The 30-year series begins in 1971 and the 15-year series in 1991. Annual figures here are the average of every weekly reading in that year.
Source & method
Data: Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS), via APIVerve. Annual figures are the mean of every weekly survey reading in the calendar year; the high and low are the highest and lowest weekly readings that year. The 30-year series runs from 1971; the 15-year series from 1991. Snapshot generated June 2026. Free to cite or embed with a link back to this page.
