Mortgage Rates Today, October 8, 2026 (index as of Oct 7 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: 7.59% (+0.03 on the day), Mortgage News Daily, as of October 7, 2026
• 15-year fixed: 7.22% (+0.00 on the day), Mortgage News Daily, as of October 7, 2026
• FHA 30-year: 7.22% (+0.02 on the day), Mortgage News Daily, as of October 7, 2026
• VA 30-year: 7.23% (+0.01 on the day), Mortgage News Daily, as of October 7, 2026

Freddie Mac weekly survey: 7.40%, survey dated Oct 8. A weekly national survey of purchase applications, so it lags the daily index above.

Also today: in the same Mortgage News Daily reading as of October 7, the jumbo 30-year added a basis point to 7.71% and the 7/6 SOFR ARM rose 6 basis points to 6.95%. The federal funds target range is 3.75% to 4.00%, raised a quarter point on September 16, and the next meeting is October 28 (Federal Reserve). The 10-year Treasury is near 5.29% this morning, close to flat, while the 2-year sits near 4.81%. This morning’s 8:30 Eastern release was weekly jobless claims: initial claims fell to 197,000 for the week ending October 3, down 2,000 from a revised 199,000 and below the 200,000 economists had expected, with the four-week average at 198,000. Continuing claims rose 17,000 to 1,716,000 for the week ending September 26 (Department of Labor, released October 8). August wholesale inventories were scheduled for 10:00 Eastern; the Census figures could not be retrieved at press time. The week’s third and final coupon auction, 30-year bonds, comes this afternoon.

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

What moved rates

Wednesday’s close was worse than the three basis points suggest, and better than the morning threatened. Per Mortgage News Daily, the opening rate sheets that came out around 9:30 Eastern were sharply worse than Tuesday’s, enough that top tier quotes would have jumped well above where they finished. The bond market then recovered, several lenders improved their pricing by late morning, and most lowered rates again in the afternoon. What survived all of that was a daily 30-year index three basis points higher at 7.59%.

Mortgage News Daily attributes the afternoon half of that round trip to Treasury supply. Its recap for the day says the afternoon’s 10-year auction “was well-received (as they often are when yields tag long-term highs),” and that the follow through “helped complete the round trip.” The figures in that recap trace the arc: 10-year yields reached new long-term highs just over 5.36% in the morning and were up 3.6 basis points at 5.32% by 10:28 Eastern, with mortgage bonds down about a quarter point. By 1:03 in the afternoon the 10-year was up less than a basis point at 5.289%, and by 3:00 yields were roughly a basis point lower on the day with mortgage bonds a few basis points higher. A well received auction does that: strong demand lifts bond prices, which pushes yields and mortgage pricing back down.

Worth being straight about the other half. Mortgage News Daily names no cause for the morning selling. Its recap raises retail fund flows as the kind of thing it considers when a big move starts at 9:30, explicitly as speculation rather than a finding, and it notes that oil prices fell at the same time but “not enough to justify the swings seen in the bond market.” No data release, Fed event or supply announcement is named. A morning that moves that far without an explanation is its own piece of information, and it is the fourth or fifth time this has happened since late August.

Separately, and not named by Mortgage News Daily as a driver of Wednesday’s move, the September FOMC minutes were released that afternoon. They state that most participants assessed another increase in the target range would likely be appropriate by year end, that participants generally judged inflation risk skewed to the upside, and that almost all of them saw labor market risks as diminished and broadly balanced (Federal Reserve). This morning’s claims figure fits that last point: at 197,000, with the four-week average at 198,000, layoffs are not the soft spot in this labor market. Hiring is, and continuing claims rising 17,000 is where that shows. Market reporting continues to treat the October 28 meeting as the more likely hold with an increase still in view by year end, a reading that has moved a great deal week to week and is better taken as direction than as a number. This afternoon’s 30-year auction is the week’s last supply test.

What it means if you are…

Shopping. Three basis points is noise. On a $400,000 loan it is about eight dollars a month, and it is dwarfed by the spread between two lenders quoting the same file on the same morning. That spread is where your attention pays. Collect two or three quotes inside a day or two of each other, compare rate and APR side by side, and ask each one what the rate costs in points so you are comparing like for like. Wednesday is also a useful reminder that quotes move intraday: the sheets that came out at 9:30 that morning were nothing like the ones that came out after lunch.

Refinancing. FHA at 7.22% and VA at 7.23% are running 37 and 36 basis points under the conventional reading, and both moved less than conventional did. If your current loan is FHA or VA, those are the figures your own refinance prices against rather than the conventional number. The refinance savings check on this site works out what a given rate change does to the monthly payment and how many months it takes to recover what the new loan costs to put in place, which in Florida runs longer than national rules of thumb suggest.

Under contract. The two events most likely to move the long end this week are now behind you, with only this afternoon’s 30-year auction left. If your lock expires inside the next 30 days, get the exact expiration date and the cost of an extension in points in writing while the file is calm. Extension pricing varies widely by lender and is far easier to obtain before you need it than on the day you do.

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

At 7.59% on a 30-year fixed, principal and interest on a $400,000 loan is approximately $2,822 per month (7.59% divided by 12 is a 0.6325% 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 looking at new construction almost anywhere in Florida, the number that most often breaks a qualifying calculation is the CDD assessment, and it is easy to miss because it never arrives as a bill of its own. A Community Development District is a special purpose local government created under Chapter 190 of the Florida Statutes to finance a development’s roads, water, sewer and amenities, and its assessments are collected as non ad valorem lines on the annual county property tax bill. There are two parts. The debt service portion repays the district’s bonds, is fixed each year regardless of what the home is worth, and ends when the bonds are retired, typically after 15 to 30 years. The operations and maintenance portion covers landscaping, lighting, insurance and amenity upkeep, resets annually through an adopted budget, and does not end at all. Together they commonly run $1,000 to $4,000 a year, and because they ride on the tax bill, escrow collects them monthly and underwriting counts them in the housing ratio exactly like taxes. So a payment estimate built only from taxes and insurance can understate the real monthly obligation by $100 to $300, which is enough to change what price range a file supports. Ask for the district’s current assessment in writing early. On an initial sale the builder must disclose the district in boldface immediately above the buyer’s signature line under Section 190.048, but that requirement does not reach resales; on a resale, ask the title agent for an estoppel letter from the district, which shows the current assessment and any unpaid balance. Unpaid CDD assessments are enforced through the tax certificate process, the same way unpaid property taxes are, so a balance left behind by a prior owner is not a small detail.

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.

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