First-Time Buyer Fixed vs Adjustable Mortgage Rates

First-Time Homebuyer

Origination Trends

Loan Pricing

Line chart of average note rates on agency first-time homebuyer purchase loans, January 2018 to May 2026. The fixed and adjustable lines track closely until 2025, then separate to about 6.1% and 4.6%.

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Data Points

Why are more first-time buyers choosing adjustable-rate mortgages?

Fixed-rate first-time buyer purchase loans averaged 6.06% in May 2026 while adjustable-rate loans averaged 4.59%, a difference of about 1.5 points. The adjustable share rose from 0.51% to 2.48% of loans year over year.

Date Published:

August 28, 2026

Date Updated:

August 28, 2026

Chart type:

Line Chart

Suggested Citation:

Polygon Research, "Average Note Rate on Agency First-Time Homebuyer Purchase Loans, Fixed vs Adjustable, Jan 2018 to May 2026," Polygon Pulse - MBS Pivot, published August 28, 2026. Scope: agency purchase originations flagged first-time homebuyer, fixed-rate and adjustable-rate. Metric: average note rate by month and adjustable share of loan count. Data through May 2026; June and July 2026 excluded as incomplete. Accessed August 28, 2026.

Key insights

Fixed-rate first-time buyer purchase loans averaged 6.06% in May 2026. Adjustable-rate loans averaged 4.59%. That difference of roughly a point and a half is the widest since at least 2018, when it ran closer to 0.70 points.

Volume held flat. First-time buyer purchase loans totaled 568,248 from January through May 2026, against 578,891 in the same months of 2025 and 578,908 in 2024, a range of under 2%. What changed is the product. The adjustable share rose from 0.45% of January to May 2024 loans, to 0.51% in 2025, to 2.48% in 2026.

An adjustable-rate mortgage carries a fixed rate for an initial term, commonly five or seven years, then resets on a schedule. On a $350,000 loan, 6.06% costs about $325 a month more than 4.59% during that initial term. That is the trade being offered.

Two and a half percent is still a small share, and it says nothing about which lenders, channels or markets produced it. Explore first-time buyer lending in MBS Pivot.

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