Mortgage Rates Dropped This Year. Here’s What That Means in Every City We Track.
The 30-year fixed rate is 6.49% right now. A year ago it was 6.72%. On a San Jose median home, that gap is worth $201 a month. On Atherton’s median, it’s worth $1,361 a month. Same drop, seven times the dollar impact: the loan itself is seven times the size.
That’s the part most rate coverage skips: a rate change doesn’t help every buyer the same amount. It helps the buyer with the bigger loan more, in raw dollars, even when the percentage move is identical.
Where rates stand right now
Per Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey, the 30-year fixed averaged 6.49% for the week of July 9, 2026, up slightly from 6.43% the week before. The 15-year fixed averaged 5.82%, up from 5.79%. Both are still below where they sat a year ago: 6.72% on the 30-year and 5.86% on the 15-year.
Read that carefully. Rates ticked up week over week and are still down year over year. Both things are true at once, and neither one tells you what to do this week. It tells you the direction of the last 12 months, not the next 12.
What 6.49% costs, city by city
Here’s the monthly principal and interest on each city’s real May 2026 median, assuming 20% down and a 30-year fixed at 6.49%:
- Atherton: $11.2M median, $56,574/mo
- Los Altos: $4.51M median, $22,781/mo
- Palo Alto: $4.30M median, $21,721/mo
- Saratoga: $4.20M median, $21,215/mo
- Menlo Park: $4.10M median, $20,710/mo
- Cupertino: $3.55M median, $17,932/mo
- Los Gatos: $3.55M median, $17,932/mo
- Mountain View: $3.08M median, $15,558/mo
- Sunnyvale: $2.78M median, $14,051/mo
- San Jose: $1.65M median, $8,335/mo
That’s principal and interest only. It doesn’t include property tax, insurance, or HOA dues, and it assumes you can put 20% down, which on Atherton’s median is $2.24M in cash before you’ve paid a single mortgage bill.
The uneven part of a rate drop
Go back to the 6.72% to 6.49% move. In Sunnyvale, that saves you $338 a month. In Mountain View, $374. Move up into the $4M-plus tier and the same drop is worth $511 in Saratoga, $523 in Palo Alto, and $548 in Los Altos. The math is simple once you see it: the same 23-basis-point drop applies to a much bigger loan balance in the county’s premium cities, so it compounds into a much bigger monthly number, all the way up to Atherton’s $1,361.
This cuts both ways. It also means a rate increase hurts high-end buyers more in dollar terms, even though everyone reads the same headline percentage.
What this means if you’re timing a purchase
Don’t wait for a specific rate. Rates moved up 6 basis points this week and down 23 over the year, and nobody called either move in advance. What you can control is your own numbers: your down payment, your debt load, and how much of your income is stable enough for a lender to count.
If you have RSU income on top of a base salary, the math gets more specific to you than any city median can show. Run your own base salary, savings, and a rate you choose against all 10 tracked cities in our RSU home buying power calculator. It updates instantly if rates move again.
FAQ
What is the current mortgage rate in the Bay Area?
Bay Area rates follow the national market. Per Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey, the 30-year fixed averaged 6.49% for the week of July 9, 2026, and the 15-year fixed averaged 5.82%.
Have mortgage rates gone up or down this year?
Down. A year ago the 30-year fixed averaged 6.72%. It’s since dropped to 6.49%, though it has ticked up slightly over the past week from 6.43%.
Does a rate drop help every home price the same amount?
No. The dollar value of a rate drop scales with your loan size. On San Jose’s $1.65M median, the drop from 6.72% to 6.49% saves about $201 a month. On Atherton’s $11.2M median, the same rate move saves about $1,361 a month.
Mortgage rate data: Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, week of July 9, 2026.
Silicon Valley Market Watch updates city-level price data monthly and tracks rate moves as they happen. Bookmark this page and check back.