Why sources disagree
Last reviewed October 6, 2026.
Look up "today's mortgage rate" on five sites and you will get five numbers. None of them is wrong: each measures something a little different. These are the differences that matter.
What is measured
Some sources survey the rates lenders offered during a week. Some average the rates borrowers locked. Some read lenders' rate sheets every afternoon. Some show the offers of the lenders who pay them to be listed. A survey of offers, an average of locks and an advertised rate are three different things, and they move on different days.
When it is measured
A weekly survey describes a week that has already ended; a daily index describes yesterday afternoon. When rates move fast, a weekly number can sit days behind a daily one.
Points
A lower rate can be bought with points, a fee paid upfront. A rate quoted with points looks better than one without, so two sites can show different rates for the same loan at the same price. We quote every rate at the points typical for the loan, say how many, and show the annual percentage rate (APR) beside it, which counts the points and fees over the loan's life.
Who is borrowing
A headline rate is priced for someone: usually excellent credit, a large down payment, a loan of a typical size, a home they live in. Your credit score, your down payment and the loan's size each move the price. We show the estimate for your credit band and down payment, and say which borrower every number assumes.
Where
Most "local" rates are national numbers with a place name on them. Ours are national too, and say so, until the loan records lenders report under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act give us a local adjustment.
The sources we use
- Average prime offer rates, published weekly for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from a survey of lenders' offers: the anchor of every estimate.
- The U.S. Treasury's daily yield curve: the 10-year yield moves the estimate between the weekly surveys.
- Fannie Mae's loan-level price adjustments: how much more, or less, each credit band and down payment pays.
Freddie Mac's weekly survey is the best-known rate of all. We read it, but we do not show its numbers until Freddie Mac allows their commercial use; you can read them on Freddie Mac's own page. Mortgage News Daily publishes a daily index from lenders' rate sheets on its site. How we build our estimate