Almost at a peak: The average mortgage for Israelis continues to climb

The average mortgage in July is almost at an all-time high. After the record set in March of this year, of about 1.129 million shekels on average per single mortgage, and a certain decline in the months that followed, July 2026 presents a high threshold of 1.117 million shekels. This occurred in a month where the total volume of mortgages reached a new annual peak of 11.563 billion shekels.

Although the housing market has been in a slowdown for many months, the pace of taking mortgages is not decreasing. It seems that 2026 is set to be one of the years with the highest volume of new mortgages taken in a single year, if not the highest.

Accordingly, the average mortgage is at a very high threshold, comparable to the peak years of 2021 and 2022. It is worth noting that the average price of an apartment in the second quarter of 2026, according to data from the Central Bureau of Statistics, stood at about 2.435 million shekels, an increase of 3.7% compared to the first quarter and 7.9% compared to the second quarter of 2025 — a trend that explains the rise in the average mortgage.

This trend maintains a large share of expensive properties for which new mortgages were taken. In July, a significant portion of mortgages was taken for high-end properties:

• About 1.67 billion shekels (about 14.5%) were taken as mortgages for properties worth 5 million shekels and more.

• About 43% of new mortgages were taken for properties worth 3 million shekels and more.

Regarding bullet and balloon loans, which are mainly used by contractors for promotional offers, the total amount in July 2026 was high at 1.609 billion shekels. Only in three months in the past was the volume of such loans higher.

However, given that the total volume of mortgages in July was very high, the share of contractor loans out of the total actually decreased slightly: it stood at almost 14% in July 2026, compared to 14.7% in June and 15.4% in April and May.