Austin mortgage rates, October 2026: 7.40% on a 30-year, the highest since 2023

What are 30-year mortgage rates in Austin, TX today?

The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was 7.40% for the week of October 8, 2026, according to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey, and the 15-year fixed averaged 6.73%. Both are national averages; Freddie Mac does not publish a rate for Austin or for Texas, so the federal loan records further down are the closest local check. Freddie Mac's survey covers conventional, conforming home-purchase applications from borrowers with good or excellent credit and 20% down, per its methodology page. The 30-year rate has risen for six weeks in a row, from 6.66% on August 27 to 7.40%, and it is the highest weekly figure since 7.44% in the week of November 16, 2023, by our reading of the full FRED series.

A year ago the picture was different. Freddie Mac's 30-year average was 6.30% in the week of October 9, 2025, and it fell as low as 5.98% on February 26, 2026, the 2026 low so far. A buyer who went under contract in late February 2026 and a buyer shopping on October 8 are looking at rates 1.42 percentage points apart. For longer context, Freddie Mac's annual averages ran from 16.64% in 1981 to 2.96% in 2021, and averaged 5.09% across 2001-2025, our computation from FRED's annual series.

What the survey does not tell you is the rate on your loan. A quote moves with credit score, down payment, loan type, points and how long the rate is locked. Treat the weekly number as the weather report and a lender's Loan Estimate, the three-page form a lender must send within three business days of an application, as the real quote for your own loan.

Sources: Freddie Mac ↗ · FRED ↗ · Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ↗

Why have Austin mortgage rates gone up since summer?

Austin mortgage rates rose from Freddie Mac's 6.43% average in the week of July 2, 2026 to 7.28% on October 1 and 7.40% on October 8, while the 10-year Treasury yield climbed from a 4.43% weekly average to 5.24% over the same July-to-October weeks, according to Federal Reserve data via FRED. The 10-year yield closed at 5.27% on October 6, and the Federal Reserve raised its policy rate in September.

The gap between the two barely moved: about 2.00 percentage points in early July and 2.04 points at the start of October, our computation from the two weekly series. So the mortgage spread over Treasuries held steady, and the rise tracked the Treasury yield underneath it. On September 16, 2026 the Federal Open Market Committee voted 12 to 0 to "raise the target range for the federal funds rate by 1/4 percentage point to 3-3/4 to 4 percent," saying "Inflation remains elevated."

What this does not tell you is where rates go next. Nobody quoted here forecasts the 30-year rate, and this post does not either. The September 2026 Austin housing market report shows how the first leg of the rise met the local market. A buyer can control the parts of the rate that are personal: credit, down payment, points, loan type and the length of the lock.

Sources: FRED ↗ · Federal Reserve ↗

Austin vs. national mortgage rates: what 30-year, FHA and VA buyers actually got

Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) records, the federal loan-by-loan dataset lenders file and the FFIEC publishes, show what Austin buyers really closed at. Across 26,299 first-lien, 30-year home-purchase loans on owner-occupied, site-built homes in the five-county Austin metro in 2025, the median interest rate was 6.125%, our computation from the 2025 public file. The like-for-like comparison is conventional, conforming loans, the kind Freddie Mac's survey measures: their Austin median was 6.375% in 2025, against a 6.60% Freddie Mac average for the year (FRED annual series). A median of closed loans and a survey average are different statistics, so treat the gap as context, not proof that Austin rates run lower.

Part of the gap is loan mix. FHA loans closed at a median 5.25%, VA loans at 5.75% and USDA loans at 4.25%, while conventional loans, 65% of the total, closed at a median 6.375%; the middle half of all Austin rates ran from 5.375% to 6.625%. Points are another part: 58.3% of these Austin buyers paid discount points at closing. By county, the median ran from 6.25% in Travis County to 5.875% in Hays; Caldwell County's 4.875% rests on only 440 loans, a small sample.

The 2025 file is the latest year of loan-level data, so it describes last year's market, not this week's quotes. HMDA also does not show who paid the points or why a rate was low. Use it to see the range Austin buyers actually closed in, then price your own loan at the October 8, 2026 market alongside the Austin housing market data.

Sources: FFIEC HMDA Data Browser ↗ · FFIEC ↗ · FRED ↗ · Freddie Mac ↗

How much is a mortgage payment on an Austin home at 7.40%?

At Freddie Mac's 7.40% average, a $400,000, 30-year loan costs about $2,770 a month in principal and interest, our computation. On the Austin metro's $412,000 median home price for August 2026 (Unlock MLS), a buyer putting 20% down borrows $329,600 and pays about $2,282 a month; at last year's 6.30% the same loan was $2,040, a difference of $242 a month. Inside the City of Austin, where the August 2026 median sale price was $560,000, the same terms give about $3,102 a month.

Lower prices have absorbed much of the rate increase. Realtor.com's median listing price for the Austin metro was $495,000 in September 2025 and $446,450 in September 2026. With 20% down, the payment on the 2025 median at 6.30% was about $2,451; on the 2026 median at 7.40% it is about $2,473, only $22 more, our computation. Between September 2025 and September 2026, the lower median listing price offset most of the rate increase in the payment.

These figures leave out Travis County property taxes, homeowners insurance, mortgage insurance and HOA dues, and each of those comes on top. Run the address in the Austin property tax estimator and the mortgage payment estimator on the homes page before settling on a budget.

Sources: Freddie Mac ↗ · Unlock MLS ↗ · FRED ↗

Should Austin buyers pay points or take a builder rate buydown?

Discount points are prepaid interest: "One point equals one percent of the loan amount," and paying points "lowers your interest rate, compared to the interest rate you could get with a zero-point loan at the same lender," in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's words. Lender credits run the other way, lowering closing costs "in exchange for a higher interest rate."

Points are common in Austin. In 2025, 58.3% of the metro's 30-year purchase loans carried discount points, with a median of $4,409 among those that did, our computation from HMDA. The share was 54.0% in Travis County and 61-62% in Williamson and Hays counties. HMDA records the points but not who paid them, so a seller- or builder-funded buydown and a buyer's own points look the same in the data.

The test is the breakeven month. Divide the cost of the points by the monthly savings they buy: if $4,000 in points saves $80 a month, you need 50 months in the loan, and a refinance before then wastes them. On a new construction home in Austin, ask the builder for the same incentive dollars as a price reduction and as a rate buydown, and compare both on Loan Estimates; a price cut lasts the life of the loan, while a temporary buydown covers only its first years.

Sources: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ↗ · FFIEC HMDA Data Browser ↗

What are the 2026 conforming and FHA loan limits in Austin?

The 2026 conforming loan limit for a one-unit home is $832,750 in all five Austin metro counties, Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop and Caldwell, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency's county list. That is the national baseline FHFA announced on November 25, 2025 for "mortgages Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Enterprises) will acquire in 2026"; none of the Austin counties is a high-cost area, so the $1,249,125 ceiling does not apply here. A loan above $832,750 is a jumbo loan.

The 2026 FHA limit for a one-unit home in the Austin metro is $571,550, according to HUD's FHA mortgage limits list, above the national FHA floor of $541,287 that HUD set in Mortgagee Letter 2025-23 on December 11, 2025. HUD's list shows the Austin figure unchanged since January 1, 2023, and the same in all five counties.

Jumbo loans were a small slice of Austin buying in 2025: 1,375 of 16,997 conventional 30-year purchase loans in the metro were above the conforming limit, 8.1% by our computation from HMDA, and their median rate was 6.375%, the same as conforming loans. A jumbo quote is not automatically higher in Austin, so price both if a purchase sits near $1 million.

Sources: FHFA, November 25, 2025 ↗ · FHFA ↗ · HUD ↗ · FFIEC HMDA Data Browser ↗

First-time buyer programs in Austin: rates and down payment help

Texas runs two state homebuyer agencies with posted daily rates, and the City of Austin has its own down payment program. The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) offers My First Texas Home, for buyers who "have not owned and occupied a primary residence during the last three years," and My Choice Texas Home, which has no first-time requirement. Both require a 620 middle credit score and offer down payment assistance of "2%–5% of the total loan amount," per the program matrices published August 17, 2026.

For the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos metro, My First Texas Home caps income at $134,400 for one or two people and $154,560 for three or more, and caps the purchase price at $598,019 for a one-unit home, in TDHCA's limits effective July 13, 2026. TDHCA's October 8, 2026 rate notice lists 6.750% on a bond-funded FHA, USDA or VA loan with no assistance and 7.125% with 3% assistance.

The Texas State Affordable Housing Corporation (TSAHC) runs Homes for Texas Heroes, for teachers, police, firefighters, EMS, jailers, correctional officers and veterans, and Home Sweet Texas; its rates effective October 8 were 7.250% with no assistance and 7.750% with a 2% grant on an FHA, USDA or VA loan.

Inside Austin's full-purpose city limits, the City of Austin's Housing Department says first-time buyers at or below 80% of median family income (MFI) "may qualify for up to $40,000 in assistance," on a home priced no higher than $440,000; the income cap is $106,800 for a household of four. The city's page does not say whether funds are open now, so call before counting on it. The trade-off to check in every program: assistance usually comes with a higher rate, so compare the payment with and without it, side by side on Loan Estimates.

Sources: TDHCA Texas Homebuyer Program ↗ · TDHCA ↗ · Texas State Affordable Housing Corporation ↗ · City of Austin Housing Department ↗

What are refinance rates in Austin, TX?

Freddie Mac's weekly survey measures home-purchase applications, so there is no official Austin refinance average; the closest local measure is HMDA. In 2025, 3,020 Austin-metro owners refinanced into a new 30-year loan without taking cash out, at a median 6.125%, and 1,749 took a 30-year cash-out refinance at a median 6.99%, our computation from HMDA.

At the 2025 purchase median of 6.125%, an Austin owner who bought last year has no rate reason to refinance while Freddie Mac's 30-year average sits at 7.40%, as it did for the week of October 8, 2026.

Cash-out refinancing on a Texas homestead follows the Texas Constitution, not just lender rules. Article XVI, Section 50(a)(6) says a home equity loan must not exceed "80 percent of the fair market value of the homestead on the date the extension of credit is made," counting all debt secured by the home, and it cannot close before "the first anniversary of the closing date of any other extension of credit" of that type on the same homestead. The median 2025 Austin cash-out refinance had a combined loan-to-value (all home debt as a share of the home's value) of 64%, inside that limit.

Run the numbers before taking cash out at today's rates. Replacing a 6% first mortgage with a 7%-plus loan to pull out equity raises the rate on the whole balance, not just the cash; a separate home equity loan or line on the new money can cost less overall. A lender's Loan Estimate for each option makes the comparison concrete.

Sources: FFIEC HMDA Data Browser ↗ · Texas Constitution, Article XVI, Section 50 (homestead lending) ↗ · Freddie Mac ↗

How to shop for an Austin mortgage rate

Comparing lenders is the part of an Austin mortgage rate a buyer fully controls. Freddie Mac's October 8 release puts it plainly: "borrowers should remember that shopping around for a mortgage rate and getting multiple quotes can potentially save them thousands over the loan's lifetime." Ask two or three lenders for a Loan Estimate on the same day, for the same loan amount, loan type and lock period; the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says a lender "must provide you a Loan Estimate within three business days of receiving your application."

Lock the rate once you have a contract. A rate lock means "your interest rate won't change between the offer and closing," the CFPB says, as long as you close on time and the application does not change; locks are "typically available for 30, 45, or 60 days," and extending one "may be expensive." New construction often needs a longer lock, so ask the cost up front.

On a Texas resale contract, financing protection comes from TREC's Third Party Financing Addendum. Under paragraph 2A, if the buyer cannot obtain Buyer Approval, the buyer "may terminate this contract within ___ days after the Effective Date" with a lender's written statement, and the earnest money is refunded. Set that number of days with your lender before you write the offer. David can walk you through the contract dates, the lender quotes and the payment on a specific Austin address.

Sources: Freddie Mac ↗ · Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ↗ · TREC ↗