Mortgage Rates Just Hit 7.40%: Will Buyers Still Pay My Price in Woodland Hills?

Jonathan Lopez, Jim Sandoval Group | Woodland Hills Realtor | CA DRE #02282844 · Updated October 2026

If you are thinking about selling your Woodland Hills home this fall, the headline that matters is the mortgage rate your buyer will face. Here is what the numbers say and what they do not.

Where rates are

Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey, released October 8, 2026, put the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at 7.40%, up from 7.28% the week before and 6.30% a year ago. The 15-year averaged 6.73%, up from 6.60% a week earlier and 5.53% a year ago. Press coverage described it as the seventh straight weekly increase and the highest level in nearly three years.

What it does to a buyer's payment

Take the Woodland Hills median of $1,299,000 from Movoto (updated October 9, 2026) and assume 20% down, a $1,039,200 loan and a 30-year term. My own calculation puts principal and interest at about $7,195 a month at 7.40% and about $6,432 at 6.30%, a difference of roughly $763 a month, or about $9,150 a year. Put another way, a buyer who could afford the $6,432 payment at last year's rate would need a price near $1.16 million to hold that same payment at 7.40%. These are illustrations, not quotes, and they leave out property taxes, insurance and any mortgage insurance.

What the local market is actually doing

Movoto reports 389 Woodland Hills sales in September 2026 versus 327 a year earlier, a median of $1,299,000, an average of 50 days on market versus 44, and 79 price reductions among 405 active listings (about 20%). So buyers are still closing, but they are taking longer and more sellers are adjusting price. One caution: the same Movoto page shows a conflicting inventory figure in its metadata, so treat the active count as approximate.

What it means if you are selling

First, pricing is the lever you control. When payments rise, a buyer's budget does not stretch to meet an optimistic list price, it pushes back. Second, condition and presentation matter more because buyers are weighing every dollar. Third, being flexible on terms, such as a credit toward a rate buydown, can be worth more to a buyer than the same dollars off the price, but whether that makes sense depends on your numbers and should be discussed with a lender and your agent. Fourth, if you have a low rate on your current loan, keep that in mind when you compare selling now with waiting.

What I would not do

I would not wait for a guess about where rates go next. Nobody reliably predicts weekly rate moves, and a lower rate may bring more buyers into the market at the same time, which can mean more competition for you as a buyer later. A sale is best timed by your own plans and your home's local data.

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