What the survey measures
The Primary Mortgage Market Survey is Freddie Mac's weekly national average of the interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. It has run since April 1971, which makes it the longest weekly record of US mortgage rates, and it is the figure news reports usually mean by "mortgage rates this week". Freddie Mac publishes it every Thursday at noon Eastern time.
The rate is for one kind of loan only: a first-lien, conventional, conforming mortgage to buy a home, fully amortising, with a 20% down payment and a borrower with excellent credit. Conforming means within the size limit the Federal Housing Finance Agency sets each year for loans Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae can buy. FHA and VA loans, jumbo loans above the limit, refinances, investment property and borrowers with lower scores or smaller deposits are all outside it, and most of those pay a different rate.
Who compiles it and how
Until November 2022 Freddie Mac asked a sample of lenders each week for the rate and points on their most popular 30-year loan. On 17 November 2022 it replaced that survey with the applications lenders submit to its automated underwriting system, Loan Product Advisor. Each week's figure now averages the rates on qualifying applications received from the Thursday to the Wednesday before the release. Freddie Mac compared the two methods over past years before switching and found them close, so the series continues as one line, but the change is a reason not to read much into a small move across that week.
Because the figure comes from applications rather than closed loans, it shows the rates borrowers applied for, not what every one of them went on to get.
What it includes and leaves out
The rate is the note rate, the interest written into the loan. It is not an APR, and it carries no fees.
Until the switch, Freddie Mac published the average points borrowers paid beside the rate. A point is an upfront fee of 1% of the loan, paid at closing to buy a lower rate. Its underwriting data does not record points or origination fees, so from November 2022 the survey stopped reporting them. Freddie Mac noted that in recent years the rate gap between borrowers who paid points and those who did not had been close to zero. The 5/1 adjustable-rate figure ended at the same time.
How to compare it with your quote
Treat the weekly average as a benchmark, not an offer. A lender's quote for your own loan will differ for reasons the survey holds fixed: your credit score, your down payment, the loan size, the property type, whether you are buying or refinancing, and how long you lock the rate.
Compare like with like. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau explains that the APR adds points, broker fees and other charges to the rate, so it is the better figure for comparing two quotes with each other. To compare a quote with this survey, use the interest rate on page 1 of the Loan Estimate, and check page 2 for any points you are being charged to get it. The CFPB's guide to points and lender credits sets out when paying points can make sense.
To see what a rate means in dollars, enter it in the mortgage calculator. The rent vs buy calculator takes the same rate, and the debt-to-income calculator shows whether the payment fits the ratio lenders test.
Reading the chart and the table
Each point is one week's average, dated the day Freddie Mac gives the week, usually the Thursday it was released; holiday weeks are sometimes dated a Wednesday. The table summarises the weeks by calendar year. Rates are given to two decimal places, as Freddie Mac publishes them.
The 30-year rate does not follow the Federal Reserve's decisions step for step. It moves with the yield on longer Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities, so it can rise in a week the Fed cuts. Read it beside the federal funds target range to see how far the two part company, and beside the 15-year fixed rate to see what a shorter term costs.