The morning after the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark rate, two of the country’s biggest mortgage lenders moved their posted 30-year rates higher, and the homeowner who might have refinanced a year ago has, by the numbers, nearly disappeared.
Rocket Mortgage lifted its posted 30-year fixed rate to 7.25% on Thursday, up 0.125 points on the day and 0.375 points from a week ago. Bank of America raised its own to 7.375%, also up 0.125. U.S. Bank went the other direction, trimming its 30-year rate to 6.99%.
The moves came a day after the Fed raised the federal funds target range by a quarter point to 3.75%-4% in a unanimous 12-0 vote, citing elevated inflation while describing economic activity as expanding at a solid pace, according to the Federal Reserve Board. In the bond market that mortgage pricing most closely tracks, the 10-year Treasury yield stood at 5.00% at Tuesday’s close, up 20 basis points over the past week.
Highest since spring of last year
Nationally, the picture was tightening before the Fed acted. Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey put the average 30-year fixed rate at 6.76% for the week ending September 10, up from 6.71% a week earlier. The Mortgage Bankers Association’s weekly survey, covering the week ending September 11, ran hotter.
“The 30-year fixed rate at 6.97% was at its highest level since May 2025,” Joel Kan, the MBA’s vice president and deputy chief economist, said in a statement reported by HousingWire.
Borrowers stepped back. Total mortgage applications fell 4.1% that week after a Labor Day adjustment, HousingWire reported, with refinance applications down 9% week over week and the purchase index off 1%.
The refi has become a rounding error
The weekly dip understates a longer shift. Over the three months through August, refinance accounted for just 2% of the mortgage inquiries consumers submitted across RateZip’s network, down from 39% in the same months a year earlier, according to RateZip’s Mortgage Demand Index. Home-equity products, HELOC plus reverse, drew 76% of inquiries over that stretch, up from 43%.
Homeowners are not walking away from borrowing. August inquiry volume was 11% higher than July’s and 157% higher than August 2025’s. The mix has simply moved from replacing the loan on the house toward borrowing against it.
A wide gap between lenders
On any given morning, the difference between lenders is far larger than the day-to-day movement of any one of them. The spread between the cheapest and most expensive posted 30-year rate in RateZip’s tracked set is 1.385 points, AmeriSave at 5.99% against Bank of America at 7.375%. On a $400,000 loan, that spread is about $367 a month.
Builders, for their part, are reporting a colder market. The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index fell three points to 32 in September, its lowest reading since September 2025, with builders citing weaker buyer traffic, higher material costs and labor shortages, according to the National Association of Home Builders.
Whether any of this reverses depends on forces well outside the mortgage market, in the view of Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors. “Mortgage rates can come down once oil prices retreat and with a credible plan to reduce the budget deficit,” he said in a statement on September 16.
Rates are each lender’s own published rate as of 9:50 a.m. ET, collected from their public rate pages and feeds. The APR is the better cross-lender comparison; a figure in parentheses is today’s change; a ‘—’ means the lender doesn’t post that product. How we collect and publish this: our rate methodology.
Read more
RateZip is operated by Peklava LLC, DBA RateZip, a licensed mortgage broker (NMLS ID 1592292). We are compensated by some of the partners shown on this page, which may affect which offers appear and where. It does not affect our reporting or our recommendations. Rates shown were last updated September 17, 2026 at 9:50 a.m. ET. See our editorial standards and how we use AI.
How we track rates: methodology. Found an error? Tell us.
Ask us! What questions do you have about content, strategy, pop culture, lifestyle, wellness, history or more? We may use your question in an upcoming article!
Like MediaFeed’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article originally appeared on RateZip and was syndicated by MediaFeed.co.
