Mortgage Rates Today, October 2, 2026 (index as of Oct 1 close)

Today’s index numbers

All four readings below come from the Mortgage News Daily rate index on the same day, so they can be compared with each other.

• 30-year fixed: 7.54% (-0.06 on the day) — Mortgage News Daily, as of October 1, 2026
• 15-year fixed: 7.18% (-0.04 on the day) — Mortgage News Daily, as of October 1, 2026
• FHA 30-year: 7.15% (-0.10 on the day) — Mortgage News Daily, as of October 1, 2026
• VA 30-year: 7.17% (-0.08 on the day) — Mortgage News Daily, as of October 1, 2026

Freddie Mac weekly survey: 7.28%, week of 10/01. A weekly national survey of purchase applications, so it lags the daily index above.

Also today: the jumbo 30-year held at 7.66% in the same Mortgage News Daily index and the 7/6 ARM rose 2 basis points to 6.87%. The federal funds target range is 3.75% to 4.00%, raised a quarter point on September 16 (Federal Reserve). September nonfarm payrolls rose 29,000, well short of the roughly 84,000 that had been expected, and the unemployment rate rose to 4.2% from 4.1%. Average hourly earnings gained 0.1% for the month and 3.0% over the year, and July and August payrolls were revised down by a combined 60,000 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, released at 8:30 a.m. Eastern). The 10-year Treasury is near 5.18%, down about seven basis points on the report and off this week’s peak above 5.34%. The index readings above are as of Thursday’s close, so they do not yet reflect this morning’s move. The Optimal Blue daily rate-lock index is shown live in the widget on the home page.

These are national survey and index averages, not an offer.

What moved rates

The September employment report is the weakest of the three major labor readings this fall, and it landed in a market that had spent the month pricing in the opposite. Payrolls grew by 29,000 against a forecast near 84,000. The unemployment rate rose to 4.2% from 4.1%. Average hourly earnings rose 0.1% on the month and 3.0% on the year, the softest annual wage figure in this cycle. And the revisions did real damage to the prior picture: July was cut to a loss of 10,000 and August to 133,000, which together take 60,000 jobs off what had been reported.

The bond market responded the way it usually does to a weak labor print. The 10-year Treasury fell about seven basis points to roughly 5.18%, continuing a retreat from Wednesday’s peak above 5.34%, and the two-year fell a similar amount. Traders pared back expectations for an increase at the October meeting, though market reporting this morning still describes most participants as expecting at least one quarter-point increase by December.

The index numbers in the table above are Thursday’s close, which was already 6 basis points lower before the report came out. Thursday brought what Mortgage News Daily described as a solid mid-day recovery, with every fixed product moving down and FHA falling the most at 10 basis points. So the direction this morning is a continuation rather than a reversal, and tomorrow’s reading is where the jobs report itself will show up.

One caution worth stating plainly: a single month of payroll data gets revised, often substantially, as the last two months just demonstrated. The wage figure and the rising unemployment rate point the same way as the headline, which makes this report harder to dismiss than one weak number alone would be. But it is one report, and the Fed has two inflation readings and another jobs report before December.

What it means if you are…

Shopping. This is the first morning in about three weeks where the news has pointed toward lower rather than higher. If you have been waiting to ask for a quote because every week brought a worse number, this week is a reasonable one to collect a few and see where you actually stand. Get rate and APR together from each lender on the same day, and ask what the quote costs in points, because a market moving this fast often shows up in the points before it shows up in the rate.

Refinancing. FHA at 7.15% and VA at 7.17% are about 37 to 39 basis points below the conventional reading, and FHA moved down the most of any product on Thursday. If you hold either, those are the numbers your own refinance prices against. The refinance savings check on this site shows what a given rate change does to the payment and how many months it takes to recover what the loan costs to set up.

Under contract. If you are floating with a closing in the next few weeks, today is worth a call rather than a wait, because pricing improvements from a report like this tend to show up over a day or two and can fade just as fast. If you are already locked, nothing here requires action beyond knowing your expiration date. Either way, the October Fed meeting is now the next scheduled event with real power to move things.

What a $400,000 loan looks like at today’s average

At 7.54% on a 30-year fixed, principal and interest on a $400,000 loan is approximately $2,808 per month (7.54% ÷ 12 = 0.628% monthly rate, over 360 payments). These figures exclude property taxes, homeowners insurance, flood insurance, mortgage insurance and any association dues; the actual monthly obligation will be greater.

Florida note

If you are buying in Florida, the property tax line in your payment estimate deserves a closer look than most buyers give it, because the number on the current owner’s bill is often not the number you will pay. Florida’s Save Our Homes provision caps how much a homesteaded property’s assessed value can rise each year, so an owner who has been in a house for a long time may be assessed far below what the home is worth. That cap does not transfer to you. The property is reassessed at market value as of January 1 following the sale, which on a long-held home can mean a tax bill that is substantially higher than the seller’s. The practical step is to ask your lender how the escrow estimate was built: whether it used the seller’s current bill or an estimate based on your purchase price. The second is the honest number, and the difference between the two has caught plenty of Florida buyers at the first escrow analysis. If you are moving from one Florida homestead to another, portability lets you carry some of your accumulated cap benefit to the new property, which is worth asking the county property appraiser about before closing rather than after.

Rates shown could change or may not be available at commitment or closing. For a quote on your own scenario, use the rate-quote form on this page.

Daily Mortgage Rates is published by PMF, Inc. d/b/a Pioneer Mortgage Funding, NMLS #1980 · Branch NMLS #2681379 · Mortgage Loan Originator: Brendin Straubel, NMLS #1757609 · 401 E Jackson St, Suite 2340, Tampa, FL 33602 · 813-728-7764 · bstraubel@pmfmortgage.com. Verify licensing at nmlsconsumeraccess.org. Not a commitment to lend. All loans subject to credit approval.