30-Year Mortgage Rates as of 2/20/2026: 6.0%
January/February 2026:
The cut to the Chase!
Get ready, interest rates are going to continue to decline and in June 2026, they will probably be in the 5’s. More buyers will enter the market, sellers will too, however, the buyers will out pace the sellers and we should see an increase in prices.
The Details:
30-Year Mortgage Rates continue to decline in small increments each month and as of 2/20/2026 mortgage rates are the lowest in 3 years. In May 2026 Fed Chairman, Jerome Powell will retire (can you blame him?) and the president will install his own Fed Chairmen. That’s when we will see 30-Year Mortgage Rates fall into the 5’s. That will cause buyers to enter the market and that will domino into increased prices. Stay tuned, lots of changes to come in 2026!
So what’s happening now? Savvy buyers are making aggressively low offers on properties and will plan to refinance in the later half of 2026, getting the best of both worlds.
January-February 2026:
Yay! 30-Year Mortgage Rates are in the low 6’s. If you look hard enough you’ll find some rates below 6%. Be careful, checking what interest rate you qualify for will sometimes require a hard hit on your credit score. Do that more than 2-3 times and you’ll credit score will go down. Also, keep an eye on the APR which includes the fees for a loan. Sometimes, lenders will inflate the fees to bring the interest rate down, however in the end you pay more.
So we’re seeing a bit of a decline this last few months in the Median Sold Price of homes here in Reno/Sparks. For January 2026 the Median Sold Price was $549,950 which represents a 3.7% decrease over January 2025.
Here’s an interesting chart. As you can see, we saw a huge increase in transactions in April/May 2020 when interest rates went to 3%. As you can also see, each winter we see a drop off in the number of transactions. That’s normal although the overall curve is a bit downward from the peak of April/May 2020.
Here’s another great chart that shows when interest rates went back up in 2022, Active Inventory went way up. Buyers were late to the selling arena which inflated the active inventory numbers.
Another driving factor in our housing market is the expansion of the Google and Switch Data Centers. These expansion projects are 15 years long and employs thousands of construction and high tech workers, most from other cities and states. While they aren’t buyers, they do need housing and that pressures rental prices up driving renters to buying.
Next will be the $1b Lyten Lithium Sulfur Battery GigaFactory in North Reno. Slated to break ground in 2025 and the first phase to be operational in 2028. I live about 2 miles away from the project and will include more information in future market updates.
No doubt, we live in interesting times.
Disclaimer – This website contains forward looking statements that are predictions based on data that can and will change as we go forward in time. Today’s economy is filled with changes that happen daily and sometimes hourly. These changes will affect Buyer’s and Seller’s as well as Mortgage Interest Rates and Home Values. You should be cautious in any major purchase and carefully draw your own conclusions on where the market is, where it will go and when.
Conclusions:
If you’re a Buyer – Now is the time to get pre-approved for a mortgage loan. As we shared on our video interview, you need to have Cash, Credit and Income (CC&I). Click here to watch that video. Another great resource, our latest video: How to Improve your Credit Score.
If you’re thinking of Selling – It’s a good idea to have a Realtor complete a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA). Keep in mind there are Automated CMA’s and Manual CMA’s. The difference being a Manual CMA will be more detailed in comparing upgrades. I’d be happy to provide you with either at your request. Click Here to see the Automated CMA for your home and I’ll contact you to discuss further.
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