Average Mortgage Rate

The average is reported over a window of up to three years ending in the most recent published activity year. Because prevailing rates changed substantially across recent years, a multi-year average is sensitive to when within the window a tract's lending happened. A tract that transacted heavily early in the window and a tract that transacted heavily late in it will differ for reasons that have nothing to do with the tracts.

Each loan counts once regardless of size, so a small loan influences the average as much as a large one.

Interest rate is one of the fields insured banks and credit unions originating fewer than 500 closed-end loans a year may omit under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act's partial exemption; it is required of full reporters only (OCC Bulletin 2019-12). Rates are therefore missing for part of the lending by smaller depositories, and the averages here rest on the remainder. The Government Accountability Office found that partial exemptions removed about 3 percent of the newer data points overall, with at least 91 percent still present in most census tracts (GAO-21-350), but the loss is not evenly spread and is largest where small banks and credit unions do most of the lending.

The tract is the tract of the property. Coverage follows institutions above the Act's reporting thresholds, and the published file is revised as institutions resubmit; see the source page.