Current mortgage rates

Mortgage rates are national, not local. Your state, province, or nation changes your property tax and insurance — not the rate itself, which is set in capital markets. In the US, 30-year fixed rates track long-dated bond yields far more closely than they track the Federal Reserve's overnight rate, which is why a Fed cut doesn't automatically mean a cheaper mortgage.

In Canada, fixed rates follow government bond yields while variable rates follow the Bank of Canada's policy rate — and because a term is only a rate lock, most borrowers face a reset every few years. In the UK, lenders price short fixes off swap rates and Bank Rate, and the real danger is the reversion to a standard variable rate when a deal expires.

All three sit at the mercy of inflation expectations. When markets expect inflation to fall, longer-dated yields ease and mortgage pricing follows — usually well before any central bank announces anything.

Rates matter less than the payment you can actually carry. Run your own numbers before shopping: a quarter-point looks small on paper, but the figures above show what it does to a monthly budget over a full term. Waiting for a better rate can also cost you if prices move in the meantime — the two rarely move in your favour at once.

Whatever the headline number, your quote depends on your credit, deposit or down payment, the property, and the lender. Treat everything here as a benchmark for comparison, not an offer.