The average 30 year fixed rate eased to 6.65 percent this week and the 15 year to 5.95 percent. Both are averages from Freddie Mac's weekly survey, not a quote from anyone. Application numbers run a week behind the rate survey, and the latest week showed applications to buy a home down 2 percent. So buyer demand was already soft before this small drop in rates, and a move of two hundredths of a percentage point was never going to change that. Every rate in this brief is a published national average or benchmark. None of them is an offer, a quote, or a rate anyone is being offered.
The bigger story this week is household finances. Homeowners with a mortgage hold $18 trillion in equity, about 1 percent more than a year earlier, so there is a little more to borrow against. Americans also carry $1.26 trillion in credit card balances, not all of it charged interest, and the average card rate is near 21 percent. If you own a home and carry card balances, the gap between those two numbers is worth a close look, with one caution up front: borrowing against your home to pay off cards ties that debt to the house, and if the payments stop, the lender can foreclose. Every figure behind this, with its source and date, is in the household section below.
The week in rates
Source Freddie Mac PMMS national averages, Aug 20 2026, and the 10 year Treasury constant maturity, Aug 21 2026. These are published national benchmark and average rates from the sources named above. They are not an offer, not a quote, and not a rate anyone is being offered by anyone, including me.
The 30 and 15 year numbers come from Freddie Mac's weekly survey, which averages the rates on home purchase applications that lenders across the country submit to Freddie Mac. The survey looks at one kind of borrower. That borrower is buying a home with 20 percent down and excellent credit. The loan is not backed by a government program such as FHA or VA, and it is within the standard loan size limit. Your own rate depends on your credit, your down payment, the size of your loan and more. Use these as a read on the market, not as the rate you should expect.
The 10 year Treasury yield is the return investors get on 10 year US government bonds. Mortgage rates tend to rise and fall with it, which is why it is worth watching.
The 10 year Treasury was at 4.74 percent on August 21, up from 4.69 the day before. That is a one day jump. Mortgage rates tend to follow the 10 year over time, but one day on its own does not tell you where they go next.
Who applied for mortgages
The Mortgage Bankers Association tracks mortgage applications every week through a survey of lenders. Most of these numbers are shown after adjusting for normal seasonal swings, like slower holiday weeks. That makes one week fairer to compare with the next.
All mortgage applications were down 0.4 percent for the week after adjusting for normal seasonal swings.
Applications to buy a home were down 2 percent for the week and about 3 percent below the same week last year.
Applications to refinance were up 2 percent for the week and roughly 20 percent below the same week last year.
Source MBA Weekly Applications Survey, week ending Aug 14 2026, week over week figures seasonally adjusted, as publicly reported. Any rate or share named in this section is a published national average of applications already taken. These are published national benchmark and average rates from the sources named above. They are not an offer, not a quote, and not a rate anyone is being offered by anyone, including me.
How households are doing
These numbers change slowly. They show how much equity, debt and savings American households have, which shapes what options make sense for a homeowner. Each one shows its own date because they are updated on different schedules.
$11.7 trillion in home equity to borrow against, up about 1 percent from a year earlier
Equity is what a home is worth minus what is still owed on it. Homeowners with a mortgage hold $18 trillion of it in total, up from $17.8 trillion a year earlier. ICE, which tracks mortgage data, counts $11.7 trillion of that as the part homeowners could borrow and still keep 20 percent of their home's value as equity. A year earlier it was $11.6 trillion. So there is a little more to borrow against in total than a year ago. About 47.5 million homeowners with a mortgage have equity they could borrow against, roughly the same number as a year earlier. It is not spread evenly, so your own home's equity depends on its value and what you owe.
ICE Mortgage Monitor, August 2026 and August 2025, as of Q2 2026, compared with Q2 2025
Two thirds of the main mortgages people already have are under 5 percent
Of the main mortgages people already have, not counting home equity loans or other second loans, 66.7 percent were taken out at a rate under 5 percent and 49.9 percent under 4 percent. About 22 percent, a little more than 1 in 5, were taken out at 6 percent or higher.
Federal Housing Finance Agency, National Mortgage Database, as of the first quarter of 2026, released June 26 2026, the latest available as of September 14 2026
$1.26 trillion in credit card balances nationwide
Up $21 billion in the quarter. This counts every card balance, including people who pay theirs off in full each month, so not all of it is being charged interest.
New York Fed Household Debt and Credit Report, Q2 2026, as of Q2 2026, released Aug 11 2026
20.94 percent average credit card interest rate
The average across all commercial bank credit card accounts, about three times the average 30 year mortgage rate. The real gap is smaller for someone thinking about using home equity to pay off cards, because a second mortgage usually carries a higher rate than a first mortgage.
Federal Reserve G.19, FRED series TERMCBCCALLNS, as of May 2026
$8,000 is the typical balance in household checking and savings
This is the median, meaning the household in the middle, across checking, savings and money market accounts for households that have them. The average is $62,410, much higher, because a small number of very large balances pull it up. Homeowners tend to have more than the median.
Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances, as of 2022 survey, the last full survey released
$141,000 average 401k balance
The average across 401k plans Fidelity administers.
Fidelity Q1 2026 Retirement Analysis, as of Q1 2026
$459 billion owed on home equity lines of credit, and rising
Homeowners are borrowing against their equity with a line of credit, a second loan that leaves their main mortgage in place.
New York Fed Household Debt and Credit Report, Q2 2026, as of Q2 2026
54 percent of the equity homeowners took out came through a second loan
A second loan, like a home equity loan or line of credit, sits behind the main mortgage, which lets borrowers keep a low rate on their first mortgage. The money taken out through cash out refinances, which replace the main mortgage with a bigger one, was still the highest for any first quarter since 2022. Separately, in the second quarter of 2026, refinances of all kinds, not only cash out, made up 33 percent of the single family loans, by dollar amount, that Freddie Mac bought or guaranteed. Freddie Mac is one of the large companies that buy mortgages from lenders.
ICE Mortgage Monitor, June 2026 report, and Freddie Mac second quarter 2026 results, as of Q1 2026 for ICE and Q2 2026 for Freddie Mac, the latest available on September 14 2026
Corrected September 14 2026: an earlier version cited an older FHFA figure for the share of mortgages with higher rates and an older Freddie Mac refinance share. The figures above are from the most recent releases.
Every figure above is a published national aggregate from the source named beside it. Any rate shown here, including the credit card average, is a national average and not an offer, a quote, or a rate anyone is being offered.
For loan officers
This part is written for loan officers. If you own a home or are buying one, it is still worth reading, because it shows the kind of conversation a good loan officer should be having with you.
Offer a debt review, using the numbers in this brief
Put three numbers from this brief side by side. The average credit card rate was 20.94 percent in May. The last full Federal Reserve survey found the typical household had $8,000 in checking and savings. And ICE counts $11.7 trillion in home equity that homeowners could borrow against, about 1 percent more than a year earlier. Your clients with a mortgage tend to have more savings than that typical household, but the point still holds: the card rate is roughly three times the average first mortgage rate, the gap is smaller against a second mortgage, and a large card balance can be hard to clear from checking alone.
Offer a review, after checking with your compliance team, because contacting past clients can fall under Do Not Call and similar rules. Run their real numbers in the blended rate calculator and the home equity loan comparison. Then say the honest part out loud. Using home equity to pay off cards turns card debt, which is not tied to the house, into debt that is, and if the payments stop, the lender can foreclose. A longer repayment period can also raise the total cost even when the monthly cost falls. Those sentences are what make the rest of the conversation believable.
The rates named here are published national averages. None of them is an offer, a quote, or a rate anyone is being offered.
Start with a second loan, not a refinance
Two thirds of mortgages have a rate under 5 percent. And second loans, like a home equity loan or a home equity line of credit, which sit behind the first mortgage, made up 54 percent of the equity homeowners took out in the first quarter. If your client is one of the two thirds with a rate under 5 percent, they already know their first mortgage is a keeper. If you open with a cash out refinance, which replaces that mortgage with a new, bigger one at today's rates, you sound like you did not do the math. Start with the home equity loan comparison and the blended rate calculator instead, and show the first mortgage staying put.
The rate figures named here describe existing mortgages and published averages nationally. None of them is an offer, a quote, or a rate anyone is being offered.
Your past clients are a better use of this week than new leads
Refinance applications are about a fifth below last year, so phones are quiet across the industry. Many of your past clients may have a rate under 5 percent, as two thirds of mortgages nationally do, and assume there is nothing to talk about. The numbers in this brief say otherwise: conversations about equity and credit card debt do not depend on their mortgage rate. Pick ten past clients who have been in their homes a few years and offer the complimentary mortgage review by name. Check with your compliance team before you reach out, because contacting past clients can fall under Do Not Call and similar rules. A quiet week is when that call gets returned.
The rate figure named here describes existing mortgages nationally. It is not an offer, a quote, or a rate anyone is being offered.
Take extra care with cash out loans when debts are already high compared with income
ICE reports that baby boomers were 31 percent of cash out activity last quarter, meaning loans where homeowners borrowed against their home and took money out, and that their debt to income ratios on those loans, meaning monthly debt payments compared with monthly income before taxes, run noticeably higher than other generations. The lesson is about the ratio, not the age: never handle a file differently because of a borrower's age.
On any file where debts are already high compared with income, slow down and carefully document that the borrower can afford the payments, applying the same standard to every borrower and every lawful source of income. If a borrower asks about a reverse mortgage, a different kind of loan with its own rules and costs, know where you would refer that question. Sometimes the honest answer is a smaller amount, a different product, or not borrowing at all.
What to watch next
Three dates could move rates over the next month. The Federal Reserve's preferred measure of inflation, called PCE, comes out Wednesday August 26. The August jobs report comes out Friday September 4, and it matters more than usual because July's report showed the economy losing jobs. The Fed announces its rate decision Wednesday September 16.
If a client asks whether to lock their rate now or wait, the honest answer is that any one of those three days can move rates more than the whole past month did, in either direction. Locking means the lender agrees to hold your rate and pricing for a set number of days, as long as the details of your loan do not change. So it protects today's price for that time. Waiting is a bet on a report nobody has seen yet. Say it that plainly. Loan officers, check current pricing before your calls on each of those three days.
Where the numbers come from
Rates are the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey national average and the 10 year Treasury constant maturity via FRED. Application figures are the Mortgage Bankers Association weekly survey as publicly reported. Household figures are from the New York Fed, the Federal Reserve, FHFA, ICE and Fidelity, each dated in the list above. Release dates in the week ahead are from the Federal Reserve and Bureau of Labor Statistics calendars. This brief is educational market commentary. It is not an offer of credit, not a quote, not a commitment to lend, and not financial, tax, or legal advice. Figures are national aggregates and say nothing about what any individual borrower qualifies for.