INTEREST RATES
Rates 📢 August 17th, 2026

Rate data as of morning of publication. Unless noted otherwise, all scenarios are assuming 30 Year-Fixed mortgage, Purchase or R/T Refinance. No origination points charged, 780 FICO score, and 20% down payment. *Most HELOCs are variable-rate lines of credit based on the Wall Street Journal Prime Rate (currently 6.75%) plus a margin that varies by program, credit profile, and combined loan-to-value. GTG Financial offers multiple HELOC programs through its wholesale lending partners. Contact us for a personalized quote. Provided for consumer education only and does not serve as a binding offer to extend lending. Payment period, interest rate, APR, and other terms subject to income, asset, and credit profile qualification. Provided courtesy of GTG Financial, Inc. NMLS 1595076. Equal housing opportunity. www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org

⏱️ Rates in 60 Seconds

🧾 Inflation came in cool on Wednesday. Consumer prices rose just 0.1% in July, putting the annual rate at 3.4%. Strip out food and energy and the core reading was 2.5%, with shelter accounting for nearly two thirds of the monthly increase. Traders reacted fast, and the odds of the Fed leaving rates alone in September jumped from 52% to 64%.

📊 Here is the strange part. Soft jobs one week, soft inflation the next, and long term rates went up anyway. The 10 Year Treasury climbed back to 4.71% and the 30 Year hit its highest level since 2007. Bond investors are looking past the monthly numbers and worrying about inflation years from now. Energy still costs 14.7% more than a year ago, and the Fed has a brand new chair whose resolve the market has not tested. When investors doubt inflation gets solved long term, they demand a higher return to lend for 10 and 30 years. Mortgage rates ride on those long yields, which is why your rate sheet saw no relief.

🔑 Realtor Insight: The old rule that bad economic news means lower mortgage rates is not working right now. Two soft reports in a row, and rates moved the wrong way both times. What matters this year is whether the bond market believes inflation is under control, not whether this month's data was weak. So when a client says they are waiting for the economy to slow so rates drop, tell them the market already ran that experiment twice this month and it failed.

🗓️ What to watch this week:

• Tuesday: Housing starts and building permits, a read on whether builders are adding the inventory your buyers need.

• Wednesday: Minutes from the July Fed meeting. Three officials voted to raise rates that day, and this shows how close the rest were to joining them.

• Thursday: Weekly jobless claims. After July's job losses, another ugly number would say the labor market is genuinely cracking.