A Full Year of Fed Inaction Keeps Cash Yields Above 4% as Mortgages Drift Sideways

After three cuts in 2025 the Fed has left rates untouched through 2026, leaving 4.15% CDs available and 30-year mortgages parked in the mid-6s.

The hold is the story

The Fed cut the federal funds rate three times in 2025 and has left it alone so far in 2026 — a full year of inaction that has kept short-dated cash competitive. The highest CD rate available today is 4.15% APY, on Synchrony Bank's 14-month product, with the best rates concentrated in terms of around a year or less at online banks and credit unions. That shape — top yields at the short end — is what a market positioned for eventual easing looks like: savers are being paid to stay short, not to extend.

Mortgages are going nowhere in particular

Zillow marketplace averages have rates mixed into the weekend: the 15-year fixed rose 11 basis points to 6.01% and the 5/1 ARM rose 3 basis points to 6.37%, while the 30-year fixed is listed at 6.51% and 30-year refinance at 6.64%. Refi rates sitting above purchase rates across most terms is the practical constraint — with the policy rate static, there is no mechanism to pull borrowing costs down and unlock refinancing volume.

The UK is where the rate risk is being repriced

UK officials fear Prime Minister Burnham's fiscal flexibility could unsettle bond markets — a live concern given the direction of policy pressure. The TUC is urging new chancellor John Healey to order a "root and branch" review of the OBR ahead of his first budget on 28 October, arguing the forecaster downplays public investment benefits by assuming it crowds out private capital, and to expand the National Wealth Fund using rules that exempt borrowing matched by a financial asset. Incoming OBR chair Jonathan Haskel has already told the Treasury committee his medium-term forecast is for "somewhat higher interest rates and weaker GDP growth than most are expecting," and that Britain is "not in a very good fiscal position." The tension is explicit: pressure to loosen the fiscal framework is arriving just as the forecaster sets a more pessimistic baseline.

Sources

• Best CD rates today, Saturday, August 8, 2026: Best CD account earns 4.15% APY (yahoo_finance)
• Mortgage and refinance interest rates today, Saturday, August 8, 2026: Rates mixed this weekend (yahoo_finance)
• UK officials fear Burnham’s fiscal flexibility could unsettle bond markets (investing_com)
• Union calls for robust review of OBR over fears it holds back economic growth (guardian_business)

Not investment advice.