Mortgage Rates Today, October 20, 2026 (index as of Oct 20 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: 7.40% (-0.03 on the day), Mortgage News Daily, as of October 20, 2026
• 15-year fixed: 7.05% (-0.02 on the day), Mortgage News Daily, as of October 20, 2026
• 30-year FHA: 7.02% (-0.02 on the day), Mortgage News Daily, as of October 20, 2026
• 30-year VA: 7.04% (-0.01 on the day), Mortgage News Daily, as of October 20, 2026

Freddie Mac weekly survey: 7.40%, survey dated Oct 15. A weekly national survey of purchase applications, so it lags the daily index above.

Also today: the jumbo reading on the same Mortgage News Daily index came in at 7.65%, unchanged on the day, and the 7/6 SOFR adjustable rate came in at 6.80%, down 0.01. The Federal Reserve’s target range for the federal funds rate is 3.75% to 4.00% following the quarter point increase on September 16, and the next scheduled meeting is October 28. The 10-year Treasury yield is near 5.11% as of this writing, down about 2 basis points on the day, with the 2-year near 4.79%, roughly unchanged. One report landed this morning. September new residential construction came in soft across the board: housing starts ran at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,221,000, down 5.2% from the revised August rate of 1,288,000 and down 7.4% from September 2025, with single-family starts at 859,000, down 4.6% on the month. Building permits were 1,400,000, down 0.2% from August and 3.0% below a year ago, with single-family permits at 845,000, down 4.0% on the month. Completions were 1,192,000 (U.S. Census Bureau and HUD, release CB26-162, October 20, 2026). The rest of the week is thin: a 20-year Treasury auction tomorrow afternoon, weekly jobless claims Thursday morning, and the S&P Global PMIs and the University of Michigan inflation expectations reading Friday.

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

What moved rates

Today was the fourth session of a mild drift lower. The daily 30-year index closed 3 basis points lower at 7.40%, with the 15-year, FHA and VA readings all easing a basis point or two alongside it. Mortgage News Daily noted that only two sessions in the past three weeks have closed under today’s reading, which is a fair summary of where the index now sits relative to the first half of October.

Per Mortgage News Daily, the lower rates seen since last Wednesday are primarily being driven by concerns about deleveraging and potential contagion in the AI sector. Mortgage News Daily points to CoreWeave as one of the most closely watched bellwethers, noting that a sharp decline in its stock price and a sharp increase in its corporate bond yields have broadly mirrored recent moves in interest rates. That is an unusual driver for a mortgage market that spends most of its time watching inflation prints and Fed language, and it is worth understanding the mechanism: when investors start worrying about credit quality in a particular corner of the market, money tends to move toward Treasuries, and bonds and yields move opposite each other, so buying pushes yields down and mortgage pricing follows. Mortgage News Daily also notes that some of today’s intraday volatility can be viewed in the context of oil prices and war related headlines, while cautioning against placing too much emphasis on the oil price correlation, which it says has been highly unreliable for more than a month.

The one report released today was about housing supply rather than about rates, and it did not help the construction picture. Starts at an annual rate of 1,221,000 are the weakest monthly reading in a while, and the year over year decline of 7.4% says builders broke ground on meaningfully fewer homes this September than last. Read alongside yesterday’s builder confidence reading of 29, the two reports describe the same situation from different angles: demand is soft enough that builders are both discounting what they have and starting less of what they do not. Permits held up better than starts, which at least suggests builders are keeping their options open rather than walking away.

For a borrower, the practical point is narrower than the headlines. The index has given back roughly a tenth of a percent since the middle of last week, and that is a real improvement on a $400,000 loan, but it is a four day move inside a market that has spent October in the mid to high sevens. Today’s figure is a daily index reading at the end of one session, not a live quote and not a forecast.

What it means if you are…

Shopping. The index has eased four sessions running and now sits near a three week low at 7.40%. That makes a quote from the first week of October genuinely stale rather than merely dated. What you actually pay still turns on your credit profile, the loan amount, the property type and the occupancy, so a figure run on your own file today is the only one that says anything about your budget. If new construction is on your list, the combination of soft starts and weak builder confidence is a reason to ask what incentives are being offered rather than to treat the list price as fixed.

Refinancing. The government readings stayed on the better side of the table again today. FHA at 7.02% and VA at 7.04% both sit under the 7.40% conventional index, and that spread has held through October. If your current loan is FHA or VA, price a streamline refinance against your own existing note rather than against the headline conventional figure, because the comparison that decides anything is your rate today against what your loan type prices at today. The refinance savings check on this site will run the arithmetic on your actual balance.

Under contract. A three basis point day does not change a scheduled closing, and a four day drift does not either. If your rate is not locked yet, it is worth asking your lender where your lock stands and what an extension would cost if your closing date moves. If it is locked, you have what you have, and watching the daily index from here produces more anxiety than information.

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

At 7.40%, the monthly rate is 7.40% divided by 12, or 0.616667%. On a $400,000 loan amortized over 360 months, principal and interest work out to about $2,770 a month. Yesterday’s close, three basis points higher, produced about $2,778 on the same loan, so today’s move is worth roughly $8 a month.

These figures exclude property taxes, homeowners insurance, flood insurance, mortgage insurance and any association dues; the actual monthly obligation will be greater.

Florida note

Late October is when Florida property taxes stop being an abstraction on a closing disclosure and become a bill, and the timing catches both buyers and recent refinancers off guard. Florida county tax collectors mail the annual real estate tax bill on or about November 1 for the year that is ending, and the state offers a discount for paying early: 4% if paid in November, 3% in December, 2% in January, 1% in February, and the full amount in March, with taxes becoming delinquent on April 1. That schedule is set by statute rather than by the county, so it works the same way in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and everywhere else in the state. Two practical consequences follow. First, if you have an escrow account, your servicer normally pays the bill in November to capture the 4% discount, which means the escrow analysis you received at closing assumed the discounted figure. If your servicer pays late, you lose the discount and your escrow account absorbs the difference, so it is worth confirming in late November that the bill was actually paid and at what amount. You can usually verify this directly on your county tax collector’s website by searching the parcel. Second, if you closed on a purchase this year, the tax bill that arrives in November is for a property that was assessed under the previous owner’s situation, including their homestead exemption and any Save Our Homes cap they carried. Your own exemption does not apply until the following tax year, and you have to file for it: the deadline to file for homestead exemption with your county property appraiser is March 1, and nobody files it for you. That gap is the single most common reason a Florida buyer’s escrow payment jumps at the first annual analysis after closing, because the reassessment and the loss of the prior owner’s capped value land at the same time. If you bought in 2026, put two things on the calendar now: confirm the November tax payment cleared, and file the homestead exemption before March 1, 2027. If you waived escrow and pay taxes yourself, the same discount schedule applies to you, and paying in November rather than March is a straightforward 4% saving on a bill that is rarely small in Florida.

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.