Mortgage rates held at 6.67 percent this week, and here is what that costs at Warren prices
Freddie Mac's August 13 survey put the 30 year fixed at 6.67 percent, two basis points under last week and nine over a year ago. On a typical Warren purchase that year over year move is about $56 a month.
Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey for August 13, 2026 put the average 30 year fixed rate at 6.67 percent, down from 6.69 percent the week before and up from 6.58 percent a year ago. The 15 year fixed averaged 5.96 percent. On a Warren purchase at this year's $1,177,500 median with 20 percent down, the 30 year payment at 6.67 percent runs about $6,060 a month in principal and interest. The move from a year ago adds about $56 a month. Rates are national. The price you attach them to is local, and Warren's is the reason the same headline rate lands differently here.
This is the first national post on this blog, so one sentence on the ground rule: a national number only runs here when it can be translated into Warren terms. Here is the translation.
The week's survey
The survey is Freddie Mac's weekly average of conventional conforming purchase loans, released Thursdays. Sam Khater, Freddie Mac's chief economist, said rates remained relatively stable this week and noted that affordability has improved from a year ago on the measures the survey tracks. The 15 year fixed moved from 6.01 to 5.96 week over week, against 5.71 a year ago.
Two basis points in a week is noise. The more useful readings are the year over year change, nine basis points higher, and the level itself, which has now spent the summer in a band around six and two thirds percent.
The same rate at a Warren price
Rate coverage usually runs the math on the national median home, which sits around a third of Warren's. Here it is at Warren's own numbers.
Assumptions, stated plainly: a purchase at $1,177,500, this year's median closed price in Warren through August 20, with 20 percent down, which makes the loan $942,000, principal and interest only, taxes and insurance excluded.
| Scenario | Rate | Monthly P&I |
|---|---|---|
| 30 year fixed, this week | 6.67% | $6,060 |
| 30 year fixed, last week | 6.69% | $6,072 |
| 30 year fixed, a year ago | 6.58% | $6,004 |
| 15 year fixed, this week | 5.96% | $7,929 |
The week over week move saves $13 a month. The year over year move costs $56 a month, which is about $672 a year. And every eighth of a point on this loan size is worth roughly $78 a month in either direction, which is a useful constant to carry around: at Warren prices, an eighth of a point is a car payment.
The survey tracks conventional conforming loans. A $942,000 loan is above the conforming range that applies in most of the country. It is not above Somerset County's line: FHFA's 2026 county file sets this county's one unit limit at $1,209,750, so the median Warren purchase with 20 percent down still conforms. Jumbo financing enters above roughly $1.51 million of purchase price at a standard down payment, priced separately and sometimes better than the survey average depending on the lender and the borrower. Individual pricing varies with credit, points, down payment and lender. The figures above are arithmetic on a published average, not a quote, and nothing here says lock or wait.
What the national number does not show in the local data
The year over year story nationally is a slightly higher rate. The year over year story in Warren's own closings is faster sales at stronger pricing, with July closing at 99.6 percent of ask against 99.0 a year earlier.
Those two facts sit together without contradiction. Warren's buyer pool skews toward larger down payments and cash, which mutes what a nine basis point rate move does to demand here. A rate change that reprices an entry level market barely registers in a township where the middle of the market is $1.3 million. That is not a prediction about where either number goes. It is the observed gap between the national rate story and the local sales record, and it is the reason this blog will keep reporting both rather than treating one as a proxy for the other.
Rates in this post are the published weekly averages as of August 13, 2026 and change weekly. Check the current survey before doing your own math.
The Garden State MLS data behind this post was refreshed on August 21, adding closings that had not recorded when this was written. The figures above have been recomputed on the refreshed record. The Freddie Mac rates are unchanged. The Warren price the payments are computed on moved from $1,180,000 to $1,177,500, which lowers every payment in the table by about $13 a month.
This post originally said a $942,000 loan puts many Warren purchases in jumbo territory. That was wrong for Warren. Somerset County is a designated high cost area and FHFA’s 2026 one unit conforming limit here is $1,209,750, so that loan conforms. The follow up analysis, where jumbo actually starts in Warren, carries the corrected thresholds. The payment arithmetic in this post is unaffected, since it depends on the rate and the loan amount, not on where the conforming line sits.
- Freddie Mac, Primary Mortgage Market Survey, August 13, 2026. https://www.freddiemac.com/pmms
- Freddie Mac via GlobeNewswire, Mortgage Rates Average 6.67%, August 13, 2026. https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/08/13/3344775/0/en/mortgage-rates-average-6-67.html
- GSMLS data for Warren Township, Somerset County,. https://www.gsmls.com
John Mangini
Broker / Owner, NextHome Premier
Warren Township resident and full time broker, licensed in New Jersey since 2002. Warren, Local. is written from live Garden State MLS data, township records and primary sources. Every figure is traceable to a source listed above.
