http://www.bankrate.com/blogs/mortgages/mortgage-matters.aspx
By Holden Lewis • Bankrate.com
Thursday, June 11
Written 2:45 p.m. EDT
LIKE DOUGH: Mortgage rates keep rising and rising … sort of.
Rates are at their highest level since Thanksgiving week. The benchmark 30-year fixed averaged 5.95 percent in Bankrate’s weekly survey, conducted yesterday. Few people have reason to refinance with rates this high, so refinance applications are way down.
After rising steadily for two weeks, mortgage rates are falling back today by about one-eighth of a percentage point.
“Any idea where mortgage rates are going to go in the next 30 days?” an e-mailer asks. It’s the question of the week. Yeah, sure, I have an idea. And the people who work in the mortgage industry (instead of merely writing about it) have a different opinion.
In the weekly Rate Trend Index, we ask mortgage professionals and economists what they think will happen with mortgage rates over the next 35 to 45 days. Some take that question literally and others basically predict what they think will happen next week. In this week’s RTI, 57 percent of the voters guessed that rates will rise, and 29 percent said they’ll fall. The rest said rates will remain relatively unchanged. I’m in the minority who believes rates will go down.
