The 30-Year Mortgage Rate Hit 7.40%. Here Is What That Does to a Miami Payment

Updated Oct 15, 2026: Freddie Mac's 30-year average held at 7.40% on October 15, unchanged from October 8 and the first week without an increase after seven straight rises. The 15-year average eased to 6.71% from 6.73%. A year ago the 30-year averaged 6.27%.

Freddie Mac's weekly survey put the average 30-year fixed rate at 7.40% on Thursday, October 8, up from 7.28% a week earlier and 6.30% a year ago. The 15-year fixed averaged 6.73%. Trading Economics says the 30-year is now at its highest level since November 2023, and it attributes the rise to a bond selloff driven by expectations that rates will stay higher for longer.

The climb has been steady. In the Freddie Mac weekly series published by Mortgage News Daily, the 30-year average rose every week from 6.65% on August 20, to 6.76% on September 10, 6.95% on September 17, 7.03% on September 24, when it crossed 7%, and 7.28% on October 1.

The payment math

This is my own arithmetic, so you can check it. I started with the August Miami-Dade single-family median of $680,000 from MIAMI REALTORS and assumed 20% down, which leaves a $544,000 loan on a 30-year fixed. The figures below are principal and interest only. No property taxes, insurance or HOA dues.

• At 6.65% (August 20): about $3,492 a month.
• At 7.40% (October 8): about $3,767 a month. That is roughly $275 more per month, or about $3,300 a year.
• At 6.30% (a year ago): about $3,367 a month, so today's rate costs about $400 more per month than the same loan a year ago.
• Same budget, smaller loan: a $3,492 payment at 7.40% supports a loan of about $504,000, roughly $40,000 less than it did in August.

Financing is also not the only way Miami buys. Cash sales were 37.8% of Miami closed sales in August, per MIAMI REALTORS, and 50.5% of existing condo sales. A financed buyer is often competing with someone who never looks at the Thursday rate survey.

My read

Three-quarters of a point in seven weeks is a budget change, not a footnote. If you were pre-approved in August, ask your lender to rerun the approval at today's rate before you write an offer, because the price you qualify for has likely moved down. If you are shopping condos, Miami-Dade condo supply sits at 12.1 months, which is a buyer's market, and that gives you room to ask a seller for a credit toward closing costs or a rate buydown. If you are close to a contract, ask your lender how long you can lock and what it costs. The rate rose seven weeks in a row. Nobody can promise you which way the eighth goes.