There are charts floating around (again) claiming that the 30-year fixed mortgage is back to 7%.
These are hyperbolic and misleading and being used to sow fear and doom related to the recent uptick in rates.
In reality, mortgage rates are about a half-point higher than they were a month ago, but nowhere close to 7%.
Sure, we’ve seen mortgage rates surge higher since the strikes in Iran, but they remain firmly in the 6% range.
And chances are they won’t retest those 7% levels again, last seen in May 2025.
Pay Attention to the Source! And Their Intentions…
It seems whenever mortgage rates have a bad week or a bad month, the doomers come out and post the highest mortgage rates they can find.
They do so because they know they’ll be rewarded with lots of engagement and views on social media platforms.
Fear sells. And they prosper!
What’s funny is this happens like clockwork every time mortgage rates trend higher for a prolonged period of time.
There’s some obscure mortgage rate chart that always seems to be way higher than the highly-cited national averages from the likes of Freddie Mac and Mortgage News Daily.
The intent is clear – to make prospective home buyers think mortgage rates are bad and that home buying is bad.
And that the housing market will surely crash, after all these years, because mortgage rates are HIGH again.
The truth of the matter is mortgage rates are indeed higher than they were a month ago because of the tensions in the Middle East.
Just about everyone is aware of this. But if we zoom out, mortgage rates are only about a half a percentage point higher than they were in February.
Importantly, those month-ago rates were the lowest we had seen in roughly 3.5 years!
In other words, mortgage rates are higher, but only relative to some really low levels.
Mortgage Rates Are Still Lower Than They Were a Year Ago
That means they remain below year-ago levels, despite this nasty uptick seen in recent weeks.
At this time last year the 30-year fixed was averaging around 6.75%, per Mortgage News Daily.
It eventually increased to 7%, albeit briefly in both April and May before falling steadily thereafter to those 2022-lows we had up until the start of March.
The gap is narrowing though, as rates were more than a full percentage point below year-ago levels in January and February.
And now they’re only about .25% lower than spring 2025 levels, which is tough for the housing market.
There’s also the risk we rise above year-ago levels in the next few weeks because the 30-year was as low as 6.60% in early April 2025.
In other words, yes, mortgage rates are having a rough time at the moment, but to say they’re back at 7% is misleading at best.
They’re nowhere really close. And if you look at actual rate locks, the 30-year fixed is still around 6.375%.
For example, Optimal Blue pegged locks at 6.343% yesterday for a 30-year fixed, which is a far cry from the 7s.
Yes, it’s up from 5.90% in late February, which is unfortunate, but still quite a bit lower than those scary 7% rates.
Most Mortgage Rate Quotes Still in the 5s and 6s
In addition, most banks and mortgage lenders I track daily are still advertising rates in the low 6s or 6.5% at worst.
And if we’re talking about FHA loans or VA loans, those are still being advertised in the high-5s.
So all said, things aren’t as bleak as you might be led to believe on social media. Shocker I know.
Simply put, take those fear-mongering posts with a huge grain of salt.
But if you’re shopping mortgage rates, shop even more aggressively because there will be more rate dispersion than normal at the moment given all the volatility.
This means banks and lenders will have a wider range of rates than usual so the risk of overpaying (by not shopping) is higher.
Before creating this site, I worked as an account executive for a wholesale mortgage lender in Los Angeles. My hands-on experience in the early 2000s inspired me to begin writing about mortgages 19 years ago to help prospective (and existing) home buyers better navigate the home loan process. Follow me on X for hot takes.