Wednesday brought another round of small upticks on lender rate sheets, and for most homeowners the more telling number is not the rate itself but what people are doing about it. Over the three months through August, home-equity products (HELOCs plus reverse mortgages) drew 76% of the mortgage inquiries submitted across RateZip's network, up from 43% in the same months a year earlier, according to RateZip's Mortgage Demand Index. Refinance went from 39% of the mix to 2%.
Chart: RateZip · Source: lender-posted rates tracked daily by RateZip.
That shift is arriving on rising volume: August inquiries ran 11% above July's and 157% above August 2025's.
What moved Wednesday
AmeriSave raised its posted 30-year fixed 0.125 points to 5.75%, and Wells Fargo did the same, to 6.75%. Rocket Mortgage and U.S. Bank each lifted their 15-year fixed 0.135 points to 6.125%. For Rocket, the 15-year increase is its third in the past three weeks, and its posted 15-year is up 0.135 points over that stretch. Over the past week, the biggest move in the tracked set is Rocket's 30-year fixed, up 0.625 points.
Nationally, the average 30-year fixed stood at 6.66% in the week ending August 27, up from 6.65% a week earlier, according to Freddie Mac's weekly survey. The 10-year Treasury yield, the benchmark long-term mortgage pricing most closely tracks, closed Monday at 4.75%, up 2 basis points on the day and 5 basis points over the week. Day-to-day adjustments of this size are routine lender-level pricing.
The spread is bigger than the move
Wednesday's cheapest posted 30-year rate, AmeriSave's 5.75%, sits 1.125 points below Rocket Mortgage's 6.875%. On a $400,000 loan that spread is about $293 a month. On any given morning, the difference between lenders is far larger than the day-to-day movement of any one of them.
What borrowers are asking for
The inquiry data says where demand is going; the people taking the calls describe what it sounds like. Paul Knag, principal broker at RateZip, put it this way on August 31:
Recently, borrowers have started asking about short fixed-term equity products, like a 10- or 15-year HELOAN. There has been more hesitation in home buyers who haven't signed a contract, as the Fed signals rate cuts are very unlikely. The volume of folks who want to tap their equity with a 2nd mortgage continues to increase week over week.
Buyers who are still in the market are at least finding more to look at. "More homes coming on the market and slower price growth in many areas are giving buyers better options and helping create a more balanced housing market," Sam Khater, Freddie Mac's chief economist, said in the survey's August 27 release.
Whether the hesitant buyers Knag describes come back may depend on something other than the daily rate sheet. "Job gains should bring more buyers into the market, especially if mortgage rates stabilize or decline, though that impact takes time to show up," Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of REALTORS, said in the group's July pending-home-sales report.
Today's posted rates: the full table
| Lender | 30-Yr | 15-Yr | 20-Yr | FHA 30-Yr | VA 30-Yr | Jumbo 30-Yr | 7/6 ARM | HELOC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AmeriSave | 5.75% / 6.237% (+0.125) | 4.75% / 5.602% | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| New American Funding | 6.625% / 6.74% | 6.125% / 6.316% | — | 6.25% / 7.287% | 6.25% / 6.681% | — | — | — |
| Rocket Mortgage | 6.875% / 7.167% | 6.125% / 6.564% (+0.135) | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Wells Fargo | 6.75% / 6.884% (+0.125) | 6% / 6.255% (+0.125) | — | — | 6.125% / 6.34% | — | 6.375% / 6.531% | — |
| U.S. Bank | 6.75% / 6.919% | 6.125% / 6.413% (+0.135) | 6.49% / 6.704% | 6.625% / 7.516% | 6.5% / 6.853% | 7% / 7.178% | 6.25% / 6.487% | — |
| Bank of America | 6.875% / 7.109% | 6.125% / 6.488% | 6.75% / 7.058% | — | — | — | 6.25% / 6.527% (+0.125) | — |
| Veterans United | — | — | — | — | 5.99% / 6.448% | — | — | — |
| FourLeaf Federal Credit Union | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 6.75% / 6.75% |
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.
Source: Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey via FRED®, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.