Mortgage Rates
Current National 30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rates
Fact Checked
Today's National 30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rates
Compare Interest Rate, APR, Monthly Payment, and Total Interest Cost
Four different products sit behind the phrase "30-year fixed". A conventional loan is bought by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac and carries a guarantee fee. An FHA loan is insured by the federal government and carries a mortgage insurance premium instead. A VA loan is guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs and is closed to anyone without eligible service. A jumbo loan is too large for the agencies to buy, so a bank keeps it or sells it privately. Same 360 months, same fixed rate, four different sets of rules, and four different prices. The table prices each of them, for purchase and for refinance.
30-Year Fixed Rates by Program and Loan Purpose
LIVERates last updated: Aug 26, 2026
- Today's 30-Year Fixed Rates
- What These Rates Assume
- vs National Average
- Which Program Fits You
- Full Payment Calculator
- What Affects Your Rate
- FAQ
What These Rates Assume
The quotes come from GoRealo's own lender pricing for a single-family primary residence, at each program's standard published tier. They are national rates. GoRealo is licensed to lend in Florida, so Florida is where we can actually close them.
Read the table with these four things in mind.
- Refinance pricing here covers FHA and VA only. Our daily feed does not carry a conventional or jumbo refinance row, so those products appear on the purchase tab and not on the refinance tabs. It is a gap in the feed, not a statement that we do not offer them. Ask us for a conventional refinance quote directly.
- USDA is not in the table at all. The rural development loan is a real 30-year fixed product, but it is not in our daily rate feed, so we do not publish a number for it rather than estimate one.
- Every payment is principal and interest only, on the same loan amount, so the products are comparable. It excludes taxes, insurance, HOA dues and any mortgage insurance. FHA's premium runs for the life of most loans, so its low headline rate understates the real monthly cost. Its APR does not.
- The conventional row is the standard tier. Conventional 30-year pricing is banded by credit score and down payment; the figure shown is the un-banded published rate, not the cheapest band we carry.
National 30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rates vs National Average Locked 30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rates
Compare Same-Term APR, Monthly Payment, Buying Power, and Total Interest Cost for National Borrowers
A national average locked rate is what borrowers actually agreed to pay, not what lenders advertised. It is compiled from roughly a third of all US mortgage transactions and published as the Optimal Blue Mortgage Market Indices. Comparing a quote against it only tells you something if the two describe the same product: a conventional 30-year fixed benchmarked against a conventional 30-year fixed, not against whatever mix of programs happened to close that week.
Payment Difference
Across programs, the payment gap on the same loan comes from two places, and only one of them is the rate. VA and FHA quote lower note rates than conventional; FHA then adds an insurance premium that conventional borrowers with 20% down do not pay at all. So the product with the lowest payment on day one is not always the product with the lowest payment in year five.
Total Interest Savings
Total interest is the honest scoreboard for a 360-month loan, and it moves with the APR rather than the note rate. A program that wins the rate comparison and loses the APR comparison is telling you that its fees and insurance are doing the work. Read both columns before deciding which product is cheaper.
Payoff Timeline
The term is fixed at 30 years but the payoff is not. Every one of these products lets you overpay without penalty, and none of them can be called in early unless you default. That right is the same across conventional, FHA, VA and jumbo, and it is worth more than most borrowers realize.
GoRealo 30-Year Fixed vs National Average Locked Rates
LIVERates last updated: --
Use the 30-yr term filter and the program filter together, so you are comparing like with like. Note that the market benchmark publishes a rate rather than a fee-inclusive APR, so a rate-to-rate reading is the safer one, and the figure that settles it is the APR on a Loan Estimate.
Who Should Choose a 30-Year Fixed Mortgage
Income, DTI, Equity, Refinance Goals, and Long-Term Interest Savings
Almost everybody does, and the numbers are not close. Of the single-family loans Fannie Mae bought in 2025, 92% were long-term fixed-rate and 98% were fixed-rate of some kind. Adjustable-rate mortgages were 2% (Fannie Mae Form 10-K, FY2025). The long fixed-rate loan is not one option among several in the American market. It is the market.
That is a local peculiarity, not a law of finance. A Journal of Economic Perspectives survey of international mortgage markets found the US loan "unique in comparison to its international counterparts": Canadian mortgages rarely fix for more than five years and "almost always have yield maintenance penalties"; German borrowers who prepay "pay the lender all the interest they would have paid"; British mortgages are mostly variable. The combination Americans take for granted, a rate fixed for three decades that you may walk away from for free, barely exists elsewhere. It was built in the 1930s to rescue a collapsed banking system, and it survived because a securitization market grew up to fund it.
So the real question is not whether to take a 30-year fixed. It is which 30-year fixed you qualify for, and that turns on your circumstances rather than your preferences.
The four products, side by side
| 30-year fixed | Minimum down payment | Mortgage insurance | Who it is for | Occupancy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conventional | 3% for many first-time buyers; 20% to avoid insurance entirely | Private mortgage insurance below 20% down, and it cancels once you have enough equity | Stronger credit and savings. The only product that can carry no mortgage insurance at all. | Primary, second home or investment |
| FHA | 3.5% with a qualifying score | An upfront premium plus an annual premium that runs for the life of most loans | Borrowers whose credit or savings are the constraint. Most forgiving to qualify for, dearest to carry. | Principal residence only |
| VA | Zero | None. A one-time funding fee instead, which some veterans are exempt from | Eligible veterans, service members and surviving spouses. Usually the lowest APR in our table. | Principal residence only |
| Jumbo | Typically larger, and lender-set | Varies by lender; not agency-governed | Loans above the conforming limit. Expect tighter underwriting and larger cash reserves. | Varies by lender |
Down-payment minimums and insurance rules are program rules and are set by HUD, the VA and the agencies, not by us. The dollar figures that flow from them are in the calculator below.
The product usually follows the borrower
- Conventional if you have the credit and the down payment. Put 20% down and you pay no mortgage insurance at all, which no other program can offer.
- FHA if your credit or your savings are the constraint. It is the most forgiving on both, and you pay for that in insurance.
- VA if you are eligible. Zero down, no monthly mortgage insurance, and typically the lowest APR in the table. Most readers cannot use it.
- Jumbo if the loan is larger than the agencies will buy. Expect tighter underwriting and larger reserves.
Check these before you assume a rate applies to you
- Occupancy. Every rate on this page is a primary-residence rate. Second homes and investment properties price higher, and FHA and VA are for principal residences only.
- Property type. Condominiums, manufactured homes and two-to-four-unit properties all carry pricing adjustments, and some condo projects are not eligible at all.
- Loan purpose. A cash-out refinance is a different product from a purchase and is priced accordingly.
- Loan amount. Cross the conforming limit and you leave the agency market for the jumbo market, which is a different set of investors.
Estimate the Full Monthly Payment, Not Just Principal and Interest
Every rate table on the internet, including ours, quotes principal and interest and stops there. The payment that leaves your account each month also carries property taxes, homeowners insurance, any HOA dues and, on most loans, mortgage insurance. On a 30-year fixed those additions are frequently a quarter of the total and occasionally more, and they are the reason a loan that looked affordable in the rate table does not survive underwriting. Put your own numbers in and see the whole payment.
| Year | Beginning Balance | Principal Paid | Interest Paid | Total Payment | Ending Balance |
|---|
Mortgage interest rates shown are based on a 780 credit score with 20% down payment or equity. FHA, VA, and USDA rates may vary slightly for different credit profiles.
Mortgage Payment Report
Generated:
Loan Information
| Home Value | $400,000.00 | Loan Type | Conventional |
| Down Payment | $80,000.00 (20%) | Interest Rate | 5.98% |
| Loan Amount | $320,000.00 | Loan Term | 30 years |
| Start Date | January 2026 | Payoff Date | January 2056 |
Monthly Payment Breakdown
| Principal & Interest | $1,914.45 |
| Property Tax | $250.00 |
| Home Insurance | $125.00 |
| PMI | $0.00 |
Loan Cost Summary
| Total Principal | $320,000.00 |
| Total Interest | $369,201.62 |
| Total Property Taxes | $90,000.00 |
| Total Insurance | $45,000.00 |
| Total of All Payments | $824,201.62 |
Annual Amortization Schedule
| Year | Beginning Balance | Principal Paid | Interest Paid | Ending Balance |
|---|
What Affects 30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rates
Credit Score, LTV, Occupancy, Property Type, Loan Purpose, and Rate Lock
The published rate is a starting point for a specific borrower buying a specific house in a specific way. Change any of the following and the number changes with it.
- Loan program. The largest single lever, and the one most rate tables hide. Conventional carries an agency guarantee fee; FHA carries an insurance premium for the life of most loans; VA carries a one-time funding fee and no monthly insurance; jumbo carries neither but demands stronger credit and reserves.
- Credit score and down payment, together. On a conventional loan these are one grid rather than two adjustments, and a larger down payment can be worth more to your rate than a higher score. FHA prices its insurance without reference to credit score at all, which is why it tends to win on weak credit and lose on strong credit.
- Occupancy. Primary residence prices best. A second home costs more, and an investment property costs more again, because a borrower in trouble pays the mortgage on the house they live in first.
- Property type. Single-family detached is the benchmark. Condominiums add project-eligibility review, manufactured homes are financed on different terms, and two-to-four-unit properties are priced as small multifamily.
- Loan purpose. Purchase, rate-and-term refinance and cash-out refinance are underwritten separately, and cash-out is generally the most expensive of the three.
- Rate lock. A quote is not a rate until it is locked, and a longer lock costs more because the lender carries the market risk for longer.
- The bond market underneath it. None of this is set by opinion. The 30-year fixed is priced off the mortgage-backed securities market, which is priced off Treasuries, plus the agency guarantee fee, the lender's margin, and the cost of the free prepayment right the borrower holds.
For scale, Freddie Mac has published this rate every week since April 1971. Over that span it has been as low as 2.65% (January 2021) and as high as 18.63% (October 1981), which is worth remembering before treating any single week's number as normal (Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey).
For the same 30-year rates cut by state and metro, see our Florida mortgage rates and Jacksonville mortgage rates pages. For the exact-match FHA leaf, see FHA 30-year fixed purchase rates.
Frequently Asked Questions
They are live in the table above, priced from GoRealo's own lender pricing rather than a survey. Note that the table carries four separate products under that one name: conventional, FHA, VA and jumbo. Each is underwritten and funded differently, so each quotes its own rate and its own APR, and the cheapest headline number is not automatically the cheapest loan for you. The figures assume a single-family primary residence at each program's standard published tier.
The benchmark is the Optimal Blue Mortgage Market Indices, which record the rates borrowers actually locked with lenders, drawn from roughly a third of US mortgage transactions. It is a record of what was really agreed, not what was advertised. The comparison only means something when the products match, so compare a conventional 30-year fixed against the conventional benchmark rather than against a blended average of every program that happened to close. Also note the market side publishes a rate, not a fee-inclusive APR, so compare rate to rate and settle it on a Loan Estimate.
For most American borrowers the question is settled before it is asked. Of the single-family loans Fannie Mae acquired in 2025, 92% were long-term fixed-rate and 98% were fixed-rate of some kind; adjustable-rate mortgages were 2%. A shorter fixed term costs less in total interest and demands a much larger monthly payment, which is a genuine trade worth making if your income carries it. An adjustable rate transfers market risk from the lender to you. The 30-year fixed dominates because it removes that risk entirely for three decades while still letting you leave whenever you like.
It sets one principal-and-interest payment for 360 months and forbids the lender from changing it. What the rate table cannot show you is the rest of the payment, which is where the programs separate. An FHA loan adds a mortgage insurance premium that runs for the life of most loans. A conventional loan with less than 20% down adds private mortgage insurance, which can be cancelled once you have enough equity. A conventional loan with 20% down adds neither. A VA loan adds no monthly insurance at all. Two products can quote a similar rate and still cost noticeably different amounts each month.
The saving comes from three places, and the loan term is not one of them. First, the program: choosing the product whose insurance and fee structure fits your down payment can be worth more than shaving the rate. Second, the APR rather than the note rate, because that is where fees and insurance surface. Third, prepayment, which every one of these products permits without penalty. The lender cannot demand the balance early unless you default, but you may pay it down whenever you like, and anything you pay above the required amount reduces principal directly.
Hold the scenario still and let only one thing move. Use the same loan amount, the same occupancy, the same property type, the same loan purpose and the same lock period, then compare the APR. Most published 30-year rates differ from each other for reasons that have nothing to do with the lender being cheaper: discount points bought down at closing, a credit and down-payment tier you may not be in, or a survey figure that has not reported its points since 2022. Ask what each quoted rate costs in points, and then compare Loan Estimates, which force every lender to itemize the same charges in the same order.