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Brian is the Co-Founder of MonitorBankRates.com. For over 18 years, he has utilized his background in enterprise infrastructure to engineer proprietary systems that track rates from over 8,000 financial institutions.

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| September 10, 2026 | 6 min read

HELOC Rates Slip to 6.749% as Home Equity Loan Rates Rise to 6.783%

HELOC rates fell 0.062 points to 6.749% APR this week, their first decline in a month, while home equity loan rates rose to 6.783%. The Federal Reserve announces its next rate decision Wednesday, and open HELOCs would follow an increase directly.

Average HELOC rates fell 0.062 points to 6.749% APR since our September 1 report, their first decline after three straight increases. Average home equity rates on the fixed side went the other way: home equity loan rates rose 0.032 points to 6.783% after two reports of holding still. A HELOC is priced as the prime rate plus a margin each lender chooses, and with the prime rate at 6.75% since December, this week's average new HELOC offer sits essentially at the prime rate itself; a week ago it sat 0.061 above it.

HELOC rates come back down to the prime rate

Home equity loan and HELOC rates, national average APR since early April

Average APRs from MonitorBankRates.com's nightly collection, the same series this report's figures come from, updated daily.

After rising in three straight reports, from 6.727% in mid-August to 6.811% on September 1, average HELOC rates fell 0.062 points to 6.749%. The prime rate hasn't moved through any of this; it has held at 6.75% since December. What changed is the margin: lenders quote new HELOCs as the prime rate plus a margin of their choosing, those margins stretched to an average 0.061 points above the prime rate by early September, and this week's new offers gave that back. Anyone with an open HELOC pays the prime rate plus the margin written into their own agreement, so these swings change what banks quote new applicants, not the rate on an existing line of credit.

Home equity loan rates moved in the opposite direction, rising 0.032 points to 6.783% after two reports at 6.750% and 6.751%. That is the fixed product's largest move since mid-August, though it leaves the average within the range it has held all summer.

HELOCs carry the lower average again, barely

With this week's moves, a HELOC averages 0.034 points less than a fixed home equity loan, the usual order for this market but a far smaller difference than the roughly 0.14 points that separated them in mid-July. For two reports the order had been reversed, with HELOCs averaging more. At 0.034 points apart, the rate barely decides anything; the differences between a home equity loan and a HELOC that matter are structural. A home equity loan delivers one lump sum at a fixed rate with a level payment; a HELOC is drawn as needed at a rate that moves whenever the prime rate moves. With a Fed decision six days away, that structural difference is the whole choice this week.

Change since September 1, by product (percentage points)

This report's averages, September 1 to September 10. Red bars rose; green bars fell.

Home equity rates this week: September 1 vs. September 10

What a prime rate at 7.00% would mean for HELOCs

The Federal Reserve announces its decision Wednesday, September 16, and futures markets have treated a quarter-point increase as a close call since late August. No product on this site responds faster than a HELOC. A quarter-point increase takes the Fed's benchmark from 3.50% to 3.75% up a notch and the prime rate from 6.75% to 7.00%, and because every open HELOC is written as the prime rate plus a fixed margin, every one of them follows within a billing cycle or two, no letter required beyond the disclosure. New offers priced at today's margins would land at about 7%. A homeowner with a fixed home equity loan is outside all of this; a loan closed at 6.783% keeps its rate whatever Wednesday brings. And if the Fed holds, open HELOCs simply keep paying what they pay now.

The house behind the loan still needs coverage

Every HELOC and home equity loan approval comes with a requirement to keep homeowners insurance on the property until the debt is repaid, which makes the premium part of the true monthly number for any rate on this page. Where the house sits moves that premium more than any lender choice does. Our MBR Home Insurance Burden Index ranks all 50 states by how heavily insurance weighs on homeowners, and California homeowners can compare carriers in our California homeowners insurance guide. Borrowers using equity to pay for repairs should price the insurance change in the same sitting as the loan.

What a $50,000 balance runs each month

A $50,000 balance at this week's average HELOC rate runs about $281 a month in interest during the draw period, about three dollars less than at last week's average. A 10-year home equity loan for the same amount at the average fixed rate runs about $575 a month with principal included. Borrowers comparing local offers can line up California home equity loan rates against these national averages. Either way, a fixed-rate quote closed before Wednesday keeps its number through the decision, and a HELOC opened this week starts from a margin at its lowest of the last month.

The bottom line for home equity borrowers

HELOC and home equity loan averages traded places again this week and now sit 0.034 points apart, close enough that the product choice comes down to structure rather than rate: certainty with the fixed loan, flexibility with the HELOC, and for HELOC borrowers a rate that will answer to Wednesday's Fed decision either way. These figures average more than a thousand lenders and individual quotes vary widely; one more quote from your own bank or credit union matters more than anything in this report.