How to compare your mortgage quote with Freddie Mac’s average rate

Freddie Mac’s 6.76% average gives you a reference point, but it cannot establish whether your lender’s quote is fair. Its September 10, 2026 release put the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate above the previous week’s 6.71%. The Primary Mortgage Market Survey, or PMMS, averages rates from selected mortgage applications submitted by lenders across the country.1

Check what Freddie Mac’s average measures

The collection rule runs from the prior Thursday through Wednesday, making this the September 3–9, 2026 application window. It is not a September 11 spot quote. Freddie Mac cannot report average points and fees because lenders do not always supply them. Discount points are upfront payments in exchange for a lower interest rate. Without those costs, the average cannot establish what an offer with no points should cost.15

The borrower profile matters, too. Freddie Mac summarizes the sample as purchase applications with excellent credit and 20% down. Its November 2022 methodology specifies FICO credit scores of at least 740 and properties containing one dwelling occupied by an owner. The detailed loan-to-value filter is 75% through 80%, rather than a single ratio. Loan-to-value compares the amount financed with the property’s appraised value. A higher down payment lowers that ratio.28

The loans are conventional, meaning not government-backed; conforming, meaning they meet government-sponsored enterprises’ lending guidelines and applicable loan limits; and fully amortizing, meaning scheduled payments repay the debt completely by the term’s end. Application rates are neither lender commitments nor necessarily closing rates.2

Your borrower profile changes the comparison

A different household or loan structure can therefore change the comparison. Archived Consumer Financial Protection Bureau guidance supplies general pricing mechanisms, rather than current offers: lenders use credit scores to assess repayment reliability, while down payment, loan type and repayment term also affect rates. Shorter terms generally carry lower rates and overall costs but higher monthly payments, because repayment happens over less time. A lower rate attached to a different term does not answer the same monthly-budget question.3

The guidance offers a useful counterexample to assuming that lower interest always means cheaper borrowing. A down payment just below 20% can accompany a slightly lower rate because mortgage insurance protects the lender if the borrower stops paying. Yet the borrower pays for that protection, adding monthly costs. The lower rate can thus coexist with a higher overall borrowing cost. The lender’s reduced risk and the household’s total expense are different questions.3

Interest rate and APR answer different questions

The annual percentage rate, or APR, helps broaden the comparison. Your interest rate expresses the annual charge for borrowing money and excludes fees. APR incorporates interest, points, mortgage broker fees and other borrowing charges, so it is usually higher. An APR above your interest rate does not, by itself, establish that the offer is expensive; the two percentages measure different things. Comparing that APR directly with Freddie Mac’s interest-rate average mixes those measures.41

On a Loan Estimate, the lender’s disclosure of proposed terms and estimated costs, find the interest rate on page 1 under Loan Terms and APR on page 3 under Comparisons. Keep the comparison among similar fixed-rate purchase loans with matching repayment terms. An adjustable-rate mortgage introduces another limitation: its APR does not show the maximum interest rate. Even for fixed-rate offers, a broader percentage does not replace examining the dollar costs.47

Compare points, lender credits and dollar costs

Discount points explain one exchange behind those costs. Paying them increases cash due at closing in return for a lower rate compared with a zero-point option at the same lender for the same kind of loan. One point equals 1% of the loan amount: the CFPB’s published $100,000 example makes that $1,000. It does not promise a fixed reduction in the interest rate. Keeping the loan longer gives lower subsequent payments more time to offset the upfront expense.5

Rate-linked lender credits reverse the exchange: less closing cash in return for a higher rate than the same lender’s option without credits for the same kind of loan. Some credits are unrelated to interest rates, so their terms matter. Across lenders, request equal points or credits to make pricing structures comparable. Otherwise, a seemingly attractive rate may simply reflect more money paid at closing.5

That same-lender comparison differs from comparing groups of borrowers. Freddie Mac’s analysis of loans it funded that met the PMMS profile and closed during 2018–2021 found nearly equal average purchase rates for borrowers who bought points and those who did not. This historical observation does not test two pricing options for an identical loan at one lender or establish today’s points pricing.2

Bring the comparison into dollars using Loan Estimates for the same amount and kind of loan, issued on similar dates; rates can change daily. Compare lender-varying charges on page 2: Section A’s origination fees for making the loan, Section B’s services and Section J’s lender credits.6

Separate monthly principal and interest from any mortgage insurance. Principal repays borrowed money. Total monthly payments also include any escrow—money collected for property taxes and homeowner’s insurance. Lower tax or insurance estimates do not establish a cheaper lender, because lenders do not control those expenses. Page 2’s cash to close shows the money needed at closing, a separate cash requirement from monthly payments.6

For a common cost horizon, use page 3’s In 5 years comparison. The first figure includes total payments of principal, interest and fees; the second shows principal repaid. Subtract the second from the first to isolate five-year interest and fees. This distinguishes repayment of your debt from the cost of borrowing. Five years is a comparison horizon, not an assumption about how long your household will keep the mortgage.6

A worked example: is the lower mortgage rate worth the upfront cost?

Consider two hypothetical offers for the same $300,000 loan, repaid monthly over 30 years at a fixed interest rate. Offer A charges 6.75% with no discount points. Offer B charges 6.50% and adds 1 discount point, or $3,000, to otherwise identical $2,000 upfront loan fees. The points and fees are paid in cash. These are invented teaching examples, not lender quotes or current market rates.5

Mortgage Rate Outlook calculated the payments and comparisons below from these hypothetical inputs. Offer B lowers the monthly principal-and-interest payment by $49.59, while requiring $3,000 more at closing. One point does not buy a standard rate reduction; the quarter-percentage-point difference is an assumption chosen for this example. Actual pricing depends on the lender and offer.5

The question is how much the loan costs by the time you sell or refinance. Add interest paid through that point to the upfront loan fees. Principal repayments reduce the debt you owe, so they are excluded from this borrowing-cost measure. Equivalently, add the remaining loan balance to the cash paid so far, then subtract the original loan amount. This accounts for the debt you would still need to repay when exiting the loan.6

After three years, Offer A costs about $742 less in interest and upfront fees. Offer B's interest saving has not yet recovered the extra $3,000 paid at closing. After five years, Offer B costs about $770 less on the same measure. The lower-rate offer becomes cheaper after payment 48, assuming both loans follow the stated schedules. Your actual exit date can therefore change which offer has the lower borrowing cost.

Why payment savings and borrowing-cost savings cross over at different times

Dividing the extra $3,000 fee by the $49.59 monthly payment saving gives a quick cash-payment check: Offer B needs 61 monthly payments to recover the fee through smaller payments alone. That answers a different question from the borrowing-cost comparison, which also accounts for the remaining debt.

At five years, Offer B has used about $25 more cash, including the upfront fees, but leaves about $794 less debt to repay. That smaller payoff balance more than offsets the extra cash already paid, producing the approximately $770 borrowing-cost advantage. The initial $3,000 still has to be available at closing; a later saving does not remove that cash requirement.

How we calculated the comparison

For a loan amount P, monthly interest rate r and number of payments n, the fixed monthly payment M is P × r ÷ [1 − (1 + r)^(−n)]. Here r is the annual note interest rate divided by 12, expressed as a decimal, and n is 360. After k payments, the remaining balance is M × [1 − (1 + r)^(−(n − k))] ÷ r. Interest paid is k × M minus principal repaid. Borrowing cost adds the assumed upfront loan fees to that interest.

The calculations retain full precision until display. Monthly payments and the detailed results use cents; the horizon table and narrative comparisons round to whole dollars. Lender payment rounding and the actual timing of closing or payoff can produce small differences. All amounts are US dollars. The fees shown are only the assumed loan fees, not total cash to close.

Both examples exclude mortgage insurance, property taxes, homeowners insurance, escrow and other closing costs. They also assume no extra payments or prepayment penalty and exclude sale or refinance transaction costs, tax effects and the return you might earn on cash kept available. Those assumptions isolate the rate-versus-fee tradeoff; include costs that differ between your real offers before deciding.6

To apply the method, request matching loan amounts and terms, note how much of each fee is paid in cash or financed, and compare at more than one possible exit date. If costs are rolled into the loan, recalculate using each actual financed amount. Ask the lender to explain differences in mortgage insurance, credits and other charges, and check the five-year figures on page 3 of each Loan Estimate.65

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